James Bond first sauntered onto the big screen in 1962, his first outing being Dr. No. Since then, the Bond franchise has spawned 25 ‘official’ films, grossed $7bn dollars, and become one of the biggest cultural forces in the modern age. Today, we take you behind the scenes, as we discuss the film scripts that never came to fruition.
A significant part of the Schøyen collection, these film scripts are at the centre of an extensive set of screenplays, production notes, manuscripts, and more, which, together, form a unique archive documenting the celebrated James Bond film franchise. Indeed, the series’ protagonist is a source of fascination for millions worldwide. There are books dedicated to Bond’s psychology, blogs devoted to his fashion sense, forums that detail his life’s chronology, and YouTube videos that delve into his car collection. Amidst much fanfare, it is easy to overlook the fact that the stories and characters in the Bond series are the product of thousands of hours of work. Our much-anticipated collection provides an insight into this backdrop of craftsmanship. Indeed, Bond films are vivid and engrossing because of the toil of casting directors, cinematographers, musicians, and countless other contributors. Perhaps the most critical of all the contributions, though, comes from screenwriters. For decades, they have been tasked with transforming the brilliant novels of Ian Fleming into a different form.
Along the way, though, some of these writers have never seen their words performed by Hollywood stars, nor their imaginations brought to life on cinema screens.
- Moonraker (1956)
The first attempt at a Bond feature film screenplay came in 1956, with Ian Fleming himself writing a 150-page treatment for a James Bond film that would be entitled Moonraker. This version of Moonraker preceded the extravagant Roger Moore film by 23 years and was to be a more serious Cold War thriller. In this treatment, Bond is a practiced killer, M is a pleasant City gentleman and Miss Moneypenny is nowhere to be seen. The script represents one of the great ‘ifs’ of the Bond Series.
- James Bond of the Secret Service (1958-60)
This treatment has an important significance in the history of the Bond franchise. Fleming developed the script with screenwriter Jack Whittingham and the film producer Kevin McClory. The author subsequently adapted the abandoned screenplay into the novel Thunderball without crediting his 1956 collaborators. McClory and Whittingham took Fleming to court in what would be one of the most sensational media battles of the 1960s. The outcome of the trial saw McClory granted certain screen rights to Thunderball, which enabled him to work with Sean Connery on the successful non-EON Bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983). The correspondence between writers and potential collaborators, along with court documents, add immensely to the intrigue of this item.
- Warhead (1976-78)
A decade on, Kevin McClory collaborated with well-known spy-writer Len Deighton on another attempt to bring Bond to life. The film would have seen Sean Connery in the lead role, battling robotic sharks, skiing on the Hudson River, and foiling helicopter attacks on the Statue of Liberty. Bond’s famous nemesis SPECTRE would also take centre stage, planting nuclear weapons in the sewer system below Manhattan’s Wall Street. The duo spent months writing in Sean Connery’s Spanish villa, who would also be welcomed onto the project as co-writer. A complete script was finished in 1978 and went on to impress famous Talent Scout Irving Lazar. Despite the praise, legal obstacles continued to cast a long shadow. By 1980, Sean Connery had pulled out of the project, and this James Bond script was permanently shelved.
By Winifred Hewitt-Wright
The collection of Dr Martin Schøyen (b.1940) is a renowned archive of world heritage manuscripts, and covers a wide variety of subjects, eras and civilizations. Much of the Schøyen Bond material was sourced by the award-winning Ian Fleming bibliographer Jon Gilbert, and is now being offered through Peter Harrington, London, in partnership with Adrian Harrington Rare Books of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
