4 replies to this topic

[doublenoughtspy]

I was going through my magazines and came across a Jack Schwartzman interview from Fantastic Films magazine, November 1983.

Some interesting bits:

He bought the rights from McClory to make the film - but no script. He is adamit that Warhead was tossed out and they started from scratch. McClory had no input on script, casting or any other matters - but retained rights to make another film.

Connery had script, director, and major cast approval.

Francis Ford Coppola did some uncredited script work: "We discussed it, he read the material, and commented on it. He re-wrote a few things here and there."

Schwartzman knew Broccoli beforehand but they never met about NSNA.

Stories about Connery not wanting to wear his hairpiece were completely false.

He wouldn't discuss budget, but said the film was shot in 5 months.

He didn't think that Sean or he would do another, even if it made $200 million.

Some interesting tidbits and nice to actually source some of the information.

So you may now return to your regular schedule of discussing what you ate/drank/listened to while putting forward your candidate for who best would have played James Bond in OHMSS.

[Colossus]

Coppola on NSNA? awesome. Along with Kershner and Connery with that much control, it's like an all-star team, a meeting of the minds.

[Loomis]

Presumably Coppola's involvement was because of his sister, Talia Shire (best known as Adrian in the ROCKY movies), who was Schwartzman's wife and who, as I understand it, had quite a bit of creative input on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN as a sort of unofficial/uncredited producer (I believe her company, Taliafilm, is credited as the outfit behind NSNA).

Also, I gather that John Barry was offered the NSNA score but declined out of a sense of loyalty to the Eon franchise.

[triviachamp]

Did McClory have any input on Thunderball either? Or is his sole output as a filmaker The Boy and the Bridge? Does that even exist?

[Turn]

So you may now return to your regular schedule of discussing what you ate/drank/listened to while putting forward your candidate for who best would have played James Bond in OHMSS.

Not to mention who should sing the Bond 23 theme and who will win the Super Bowl.

I too have this magazine in my collection and this makes me want to dig it out and read it for myself. Looking back, it's amazing the amount of publicity NSNA generated.

Loomis, I believe Barry was approached and turned them down. I also read an interview with stunt arranger Bob Simmons, who also declined to make the film out of loyalty to Cubby, and a couple of others from the EON team as well.