7 replies to this topic

[Eurospy]

Greetings to all fellow Bond Fans out there! Newbie here.

I've been lurking around this site for a couple of years (!!) and I've finally decided to start posting a few threads all around that always gnawed at my feeble mind.

Here goes one:

GERRY ANDERSON'S MOONRAKER.

What was his version like? I read in an Anderson-related site that his 70-page treatment departed a great deal from the novel. I'm always deeply intrigued by what ifs relating to the Bondverse.

Can anyone out there please enlighten me on how his version would have been? (I believe that this point is properly adressed in "The Bond Files" book, but, quite honestly, I cannot afford to buy it at the moment).

I have been extremely curious on this issue since I first heard about it, so any kind of response is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Mr Twilight]

http://en.wikipedia..../Gerry_Anderson

You might find a little bit of info here. I have searched for more info about this scripts myself but so far without luck. Hope you find some more and share it with us.

[Eurospy]

Didn't have much luck I'm afraid. I'm a bit of a trivia/whatif junkie myseld, so I'm always on the lookout for stuff like this.

Did come across a couple of details on another Bond site. This is what I found:

"The partnership created a seventy page draft which featured a supertanker, a villain named Zodiak and identical triplets Tic, Tac and Toe. The treatment was turned down and Eon Productions decided to move ahead with Sean Connery in "Diamonds Are Forever" instead."

Anderson put forward a lawsuit against Broccoli because there were a lot of similarities with his treatment and a draft that Broccoli received for The Spy Who Loved Me.

Concerning other drafts and such, well Mr. Twilight, I don't believe one can get much lucky. What I found so far was a synopsis in this site for the Michael France draft of Goldeneye (who is a longtime Bond fan) and for the Property of a Lady (the Third Dalton that never came to be).

It is ironic that Martin Campbell didn't like France's draft because it featured Bond doing too much investigation (?) and "Bond doesn't do that" (????). It also had wall-to-wall action (thus, IMO, a perfect blend of elements for a Bond movie).

[coco1997]

France's "Goldeneye" draft is out there if you look hard enough.

[Eurospy]

Quite.

Is there any other stuff such as that that one can find out there, if looking hard enough?...

[Ambler]

Anderson seems to be downplaying his version of Moonraker these days. This is his latest comment:

Could I ask you about your 'lost' version of Moonraker, which you lost through no fault of your own when Saltzman split with Broccoli? What was your vision for that film compared to what hit the screen in 1979?

I never got to actually having a vision! What happened was that Harry Saltzman phoned me and said 'Can you pop in? I'd like to see you'. I went in and he said 'Gerry, I want you to produce the next Bond picture, Moonraker - here's the book'. I nearly took off and went into orbit [laughs]! I just thought it was a marvellous, marvellous break.

I read the book, which frankly wasn't very exciting, and terribly out-of-date, as one would expect. I was initially trying to cement the deal, and at that time I would have put my thoughts together. What happened was that Tony Barwick - the late Tony Barwick, one of my favourite writers - and myself had written a synopsis. Harry had seen the synopsis and that was the reason he called me - he was fired by it.

But a few weeks went by and then…just the worst bit of luck in my life, I think! It was announced that Harry Saltzman was parting company with Cubby Broccoli. And so the thing went down the tubes.

Taken from the new interview on Den of Geek.

[scaramunga]

Great thread going here! I had no idea a script for Moonraker was thought of that early on! 1970 or so then?

[Ambler]

Arthur Rank had an option on Moonraker around 56/57 I think. I'm not sure if they ever got beyond a treatment.