13 replies to this topic

[Dr. Tynan]

I'm almost certain I remember reading somewhere that when Fleming saw that Terence Young was directing DR NO, he said "I see they've sent you to **** up my story." (Or something like that). Young said back something like "Well Ian nothing you have written is eternal."

What did Fleming mean?

I'm also pretty sure I remember reading that Young was a fan of almost everything Fleming wrote, so it mustn't have been too pleasant for him to have been spoken to by Fleming like that.

[Dr. Tynan]

Also, like I wrote above, one book I read says that Young was a fan of almost everything Fleming wrote (I'm pretty sure) and another one says that he said to Fleming "Nothing you have written is eternal" (I'm pretty sure).

One of the authors is telling lies.

[Dr.Carl Mortner]

I think Fleming was going into the whole thing with a bad attitude. Young could have directed the action/adventure equivalent of Gone With The Wind and Fleming would have still complained. The guy didn't like the actor, he didn't like the director - was there anything about the two Bond movies he was alive to see that he DID like (besides Sean Connery in retrospect?). Almost have to wonder if EON's blatant artistic licence with the series later on didn't come, to a certain extent, froma desire to stick it to the old guy.

[Coop]

>>was there anything about the two Bond movies he was alive to see that he DID like?<<

Yes, Ursula Andress, who he name-checked in OHMSS.

There are all sorts of conflicting stories about whether Fleming did or didn't like the two films. Who's to know what's true and what isn't? He's been dead for nearly 40 years?

>>Almost have to wonder if EON's blatant artistic licence with the series later on didn't come, to a certain extent, froma desire to stick it to the old guy<<

Doubt it. Eon seem to want to retain the Fleming spirit as much as possible but are forced away from it into the realms of XXX/Die Hard etc by the commercıalısm of MGM. That's my guess anyway.

[marktmurphy]

From the way I've always seen it written it seems Fleming didn't care too much how it was done, he just wanted somebody to make Bond movies and make them successfully. For the money? I'm sure it was an element in the equation...

[Bryan Harris]

Dr. Tynan wrote:

[quote]I'm almost certain I remember reading somewhere that when Fleming saw that Terence Young was directing DR NO, he said "I see they've sent you to **** up my story." (Or something like that). Young said back something like "Well Ian nothing you have written is eternal."

What did Fleming mean?[/quote]

The anecdote you mention was recounted by Terence Young in his interview with the old U.S. Fan Club magazine Bondage, which has been archived by the guys at hmss.org (btw, it's a fascinating article full of anecdotes about the early Bond films, even if it is dependent on Young's subjective recollection. The story about Sean Connery's eating habits, if true, is a riot).

[quote]"We became, eventually, enormously good friends, but I thought he was a pompous son of a bitch, immensely arrogant, and when we met just after I

[Dr. Tynan]

That's interesting Bryan.

Thanks for posting it.

[Doubleshot]

According to Young, his relationship with Ian Fleming "on a really shaky, thorny beginning. United Artists gave a big cocktail party at the Suroy Hotel to launch the James Bond series and at this party, naturally enough, Ian Fleming was there. He came across with Cubby Broccoli, who produced us, and he said, 'Ah, yes, you're the director! You're the man who's going to spoil my books with your directorial touches!' and I said, 'Mr. Fleming, I don't know about you, but my last film won a gold medal at the Venice film festival. I don't know what prizes your books have ever had.' He said, 'My God, you're a prickly customer, aren't you?' I said, 'No, but we should do everything we can to make your books a big success.'"

Young would receive a second chance to make a better impression on Fleming the day he and his crew were filming the scene where Honey Ryder comes out of the water in Jamaica. "Who should we see the distance shouting gayly away," the director recalled, "were three English gents. So we waved at them and all sorts of things and they fell down in the sand and when we said cut, they all came forward sheepishly and they were Noel Coward, a famous English writer called Peter Cornell, and Ian Fleming; and at the lunch, we all got very high together - a very good lunch sitting out in the open. And they all got fascinated because he thought Ursula was even better than his Honeychile Ryder, in the book."

After that lunch, Fleming invited Young to have dinner at Goldeneye, and Young recalls actually eating dinner with Fleming and Coward at Goldeneye two or three times a week. After such a rough beginning, Young's relationship with Fleming would improve during the filming of Dr. No and subsequently on the next Bond picture, From Russia With Love when the crew traveled to Istanbul. When in London, Young would have lunch with Fleming every Thursday.

"Every meal I'd ever have with him was the same! He used to have scrambled eggs and about four brandys and ginger-aile. So so much for his gourmet!"

These quotes from Dr. No: Criterion Edition laserdisc.

[Donovan]

Sometimes the best friendships start off on the wrong foot.

I think that as far as the films were concerned, Fleming's early passing was almost a blessing in disguise. If he wasn't satisfied with "Dr. No", imagine what he would have said about "You Only Live Twice", "Diamonds", "Live And Let Die", "Moonraker"....? My guess is an extremely strained relationship would have developed between the producers and Fleming.

Although, perhaps after seeing "Casino Royale" he would say to Broccoli and Saltzman, "you know, you guys don't do such a bad job after all."

[Qwerty]

Well, with the way that they were going to make Dr. No a monkey! You have to show some sympathy for Fleming. I think Dr. No is fairly accurate conversion from book to screen. Although it would be nice to see the full "octopus torture" scene in a Bond movie someday.

[Doubleshot]

It was Saltzman's idea to make Dr. No a monkey though. Young was the one who came in and said, "Look, we have these Fleming novels. We'd be fools not to use them."

[ChandlerBing]

Cubby also nearly **** bricks when he saw that version of the script. Fleming would have **** bricks over You Only Live Twice, and the space age stuff they got into.

[Doubleshot]

I would have **** bricks being an original audience member in You Only Live Twice.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Dr. Tynan
I'm almost certain I remember reading somewhere that when Fleming saw that Terence Young was directing DR NO, he said "I see they've sent you to **** up my story." (Or something like that). Young said back something like "Well Ian nothing you have written is eternal."

What did Fleming mean?

I'm also pretty sure I remember reading that Young was a fan of almost everything Fleming wrote, so it mustn't have been too pleasant for him to have been spoken to by Fleming like that.

It was just a joke made by Fleming...typical Fleming humor.