9 replies to this topic

[TCK]

Hi.

Found this on wikipedia, about You only live twice : Kingsley Amis said that he had been asked to provide a screenplay for a Bond film by the producers but it was rejected in December 1965. There's also a reference to "Leader, Zachary The Life of Kingsley Amis 2006 Jonathan Cape"... Does anybody know something about that ? Sounds interesting.

[Mr Twilight]

Wikipedia is not the most reliable source in the world, and i havent read the book you mentioned. But still very interesting (if its true)

[Dustin]

Never before heard of this. Neither have I read the source by Leader. Only thing I can comment on: isn't it quite odd how long the existence of this supposed script has been hidden from our prying eyes? That's not to say there isn't room for discoveries in the Bond world; even major ones at times. But personally I would have expected such a script - even if rejected - would have been mentioned prominently by various figures of the Bond world, both literary and cinematic. The mere fact this didn't seem to be the case -apart from this obscure wiki entry - to me suggests it's either a hoax or an example of the frequently seen mix of facts, half-truths and wishful thinking that's the staple diet on the net only too often. I doubt very much there's more to it.

Edited by Dustin, 22 October 2011 - 02:12 PM.

[blueman]

Timing is right, OHMSS was planned as early as '65, for right after GF. But McClory + a lack of snow in the Swiss Alps that year bumped it, makes sense EON would've been looking at YOLT along in there...

OHMSS in '65 is one of my fav woulda/coulda/shouldas in Bond lore, reportedly the producers wanted Catherine Deneuve for the part of Tracy opposite Connery, some awesome potential in that pairing IMO.

[Dustin]

So now it's supposed to be a OHMSS script?

[blueman]

So now it's supposed to be a OHMSS script?

No. Just that an early YOLT script fits with what else was going on with EON about that time.

What's intriguing about the story is that there's never been a film adaptation of Fleming's novel, I'd be very very interested to see what a writer of Amis's talent came up with (I'm assuming rocket lairs weren't in the mix back then...). Sticking to the original, and in sequence after OHMSS, that's a story!

[glidrose]

Found this on wikipedia, about You only live twice : Kingsley Amis said that he had been asked to provide a screenplay for a Bond film by the producers but it was rejected in December 1965. There's also a reference to "Leader, Zachary The Life of Kingsley Amis 2006 Jonathan Cape"... Does anybody know something about that ? Sounds interesting.

Took me a while to find the relevant wikipedia page. Nothing on the YOLT wiki page. No wonder. A wikipedia administrator deleted the quote. This is what he/she wrote:

"Remove Amis claim. Google Books edition apparently refers to an attempted adaptation of Amis's novel "I Want it Now", which he did NOT do for the Bond producers."

Ah... another Bond fanboy rumor bites the dust. Never believed it myself. Kudos to Dustin for smelling a rat. Didn't the producers intend to film OHMSS next and only some time later chose YOLT? I'm sure I've read threads on this board discussing the lack of a "Bond will return in..." credit at the end of TB.

[Napoleon Solo]

Found this on wikipedia, about You only live twice : Kingsley Amis said that he had been asked to provide a screenplay for a Bond film by the producers but it was rejected in December 1965. There's also a reference to "Leader, Zachary The Life of Kingsley Amis 2006 Jonathan Cape"... Does anybody know something about that ? Sounds interesting.

Took me a while to find the relevant wikipedia page. Nothing on the YOLT wiki page. No wonder. A wikipedia administrator deleted the quote. This is what he/she wrote:

"Remove Amis claim. Google Books edition apparently refers to an attempted adaptation of Amis's novel "I Want it Now", which he did NOT do for the Bond producers."

Ah... another Bond fanboy rumor bites the dust. Never believed it myself. Kudos to Dustin for smelling a rat. Didn't the producers intend to film OHMSS next and only some time later chose YOLT? I'm sure I've read threads on this board discussing the lack of a "Bond will return in..." credit at the end of TB.

Yes, the plan was to do OHMSS after Thunderball. Connery refers to this in his 1965 Playboy interview (where he talks about having to do two more under his original contract and he thought those would be the two, in that order). Also, the CBC did an interview with Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli shortly before Thunderball was released. At the time of that interview, they're still talking as if OHMSS would be the next movie. (The CBC made that interview, and other Bond material, available on its Web site somtime in the past year).

EDIT: The CBC making the material avilable occurred in March 2010. Saltzman talks about a February 1966 filming start for OHMSS, with YOLT coming out in 1967. Saltzman also uses the interview to plug Funeral in Berlin and Broccoli didn't look too pleased.

http://archives.cbc....lm/topics/3621/

[blueman]

Shoot, that makes more sense, OHMSS again looked at after TB, with maybe some YOLT thought at that point by EON. An Amis/YOLT screenplay is just very intriguing, oh well.

[glidrose]

Stop the presses. Other producers asked Amis to collaborate on a script based on Fleming's THE DIAMOND SMUGGLERS. I guess that's what the original wikipedia poster was referring to.

This link has more information. The link takes you some website called CommanderBond dot net. Not sure I've heard of them, but there you go...

Edited by glidrose, 03 January 2012 - 10:02 PM.