What exactly was NSNA?
jacob5000
Posts: 7MI6 Agent
Never Say Never Again: What was that about?
I've never really known. Sean Connery, James Bond. But there is no classic Bond intro, nor theme. I'm confused! HELP!
I've never really known. Sean Connery, James Bond. But there is no classic Bond intro, nor theme. I'm confused! HELP!
Comments
It's quite a long story, but I'll try to give you the abbreviated version
NSNA is essentially a remake of Thunderball---which was based upon a novel written by Ian Fleming (which was apparently based upon an unproduced screen treatment by Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham!).
There was a lot of legal wrangling over the ownership of the story behind TB, and Kevin McClory ultimately won a lawsuit which gave him the right to remake this particular Bond story---which he did, for Orion pictures, in 1983, with the help of Sean Connery, who still apparently nursed a bit of a grudge against Cubby Broccoli's Eon Productions (the producer of the Bond movies).
Because of this fight over TB's story, Eon no longer uses SPECTRE, Blofeld or any other story element which appeared, for the first time, in the Thunderball novel...
Which brings us up to the present, where, McClory (now getting on a bit in years) is apparently wanting to remake TB once again---the basic story, centering around the theft of two nuclear devices, and the subsequent blackmail of the world's governments---this time recruiting former Bond Pierce Brosnan.
There are any number of Bond historians here, such as Willie Garvin, who can no doubt better illuminate the situation than I've done---or at least direct you to previous threads...
Again, welcome to AJB {[]
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
"Better make that two."
Oh well, I still like NSNA.
Many say that he star rose too quickly after playing Bond and thta he wasnt ready to deal with the sudden nature of his stardom. This is in the 1960s when Bondmania was at it's peak. He quit Bond after YOLT for several reasons. The main reason was that he felt that he was the success of the James Bond character and that he should be recieving a larger share in the profits. At the same time he was brought in as an employee, so he was probably pushing his claims he was owed.
For the next few years after YOLT Connery didn't really have any big hits, and when he returned to do DAF it wasnt as if was as hot a commodity as what he was mid 60s. Then after DAF, Connery slipped into nothingness only having one or two hits and a load of utter crap. (Man who would be King was the only good one, I think.) Around the same time, James Bond was riding a wave of success with Spy who loved me and moonraker, and I think Connery didnt like that Bond had succedded without him.
Additionally, I think he felt cheated out of money by Brocolli because as I said, he felt that he was the reason for the success whereas he was a merely employee.
When NSNA came about, he said his return to Bond was to play the role as an older man - it was also because he had only had 1 hit in the last 12 years.
Sean: Do you serve men here?
Receptionist: Oh, you have arthritis!
Sean: No...
Receptionist: My bad.
(Sean walks into the room full of women whose heads all immediately turn when he walks past)
Women: What is THAT doing in here?
Other Woman: Oh come on, what isn't funny about the dirty-old-man complex?
Seriously, some parts really played out like that. And what about when he tried to be Roger Moore-ish during the end of the horse chase. LOOK AT HIS FACE! He is trying to be Roger and it ain't workin'.
thats what ****es me off about him, thats so annoying. I think that is one of my reasons why I dont like Sean as much, Roger and others seem really greatful to be playing the character. I know that they have played it after sean but still. Sean seems to play it like its just another part, then, as taity has pointed out he gets all ****ty about it. Which is pathectic.
"Better make that two."
Of course Connery came round to the idea.
At the time, Connery returning was great news for fans who had tired of the jokey silly Roger Moore films and craved more serious meat. Sadly, NSNA was no more believable than Moore's movies and a lot less spectacular. There was no feeling sorry for Broccoli at the time though.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Still, NSNA is better than TB (IMO).
He walked off with over a million at the end of DAF, thats more than what Dr. No cost to make.
As for TB being worse than TB, I think that the actors are better in TB. Ive seen Klaus Maria Brandhuer in other moveis and I really liked him, but not in NSNA. As for Domino, Im not a fan of blondes - so there Kim Bassinger goes. I just don't like the way that Connery slept walked through that movie, it seemed rather as if he just thought that him being in it would be enough to make it a hit. And JFF, I'll agree that Barbara Carrera was the best thing in it, but as long as you understand that means that there was little else credible in it.
Granted, I put TB pretty low on my list of favourtie movies. All of the underwated scenes moved far too slowly for my likings.
When he left after YOLT, he didnt want a pay increase, he wanted more controlling power over the series. Brocolli and Saltzman had built the series up from nothing, and didn't want to give away any of their power to an employee, no matter how important he was. After all, any employee can be replaced.
So,how did this happen?In the late 1950s,Ian Fleming was approached by a promising young director named Kevin McClory(who was a fan of the then current novels)to cowrite a screenplay for an original James Bond motion picture.Fleming and McClory and Jack Whittingham(a professional screenwriter with considerable experience)hashed out a variety of ideas for a Bond film.Finally,they settled on a plot about an international terrorist organization--lead by a sinister mysteryman-- which manages to hijack some nuclear devices and uses them to hold the world to ransom.The heroine was called Domino and one of the other females was named Fatima Blush.The man in charge of the criminal group,which was named SPECTRE, went by the name of Blofeld.There would be underwater sequences (enthusiastic SCUBA diver McClory's suggestion)and a large portion of this tale was to be set in the Bahamas.
Even today it's difficult for the Bond experts to fully determine which of the three men(Fleming,McClory,Whittingham)made the most significant contributions to this very rough scenario.There were several treatments featuring all,or portions of these concepts.
While McClory was looking for funding for the James Bond motion picture(then unnamed),Ian Fleming went ahead and WITHOUT his partners' knowledge,used the key segments of their joint screenplay as the basic for the novel he had titled Thunderball.When the book was published,both McClory and Whittingham were surprised to see the story they'd helped to develop appear in print.Fleming had trimmed the excesses of the rough drafts and streamlined the plot.He'd developed certain characters and set others--like Fatima Blush--aside.At the end of the day there was no question that Thunderball was his novel--but this time,unlike prior occasions,he hadn't done all of the principal research by himself.
However,all probably would have been just fine, if only Fleming had given McClory and Whittingham proper attribution("based upon a story by Ian Fleming,Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham" for example).Fleming had unintentionally overlooked doing this and that was when the trouble began.
McClory sued Fleming for plagerism,claiming that he'd created part of the story.And before the case went to court,Whittingham sold his shares of the film treatments to McClory.The trial was long and quite arduous for Fleming,who was in ill health.When it was over,the judge ruled that all of the literary rights to the Thunderball novel belonged to their author,Ian Fleming.But the movie rights to Thunderball(and this included all of the other film treatments created by Fleming,McClory and Whittingham)were awarded to Kevin McClory.
Because he held the exclusive rights(they'd have to be renewed,however) only Kevin McClory could make a movie based upon the Ian Fleming novel entitled Thunderball--no one else.This meant that McClory held the cinematic rights to such things as the terrorist organization called SPECTRE,Ernst Stavro Blofeld,Domino,literally everything that appeared in the Thunderball novel--even Largo's private yacht "The Disco Volante".And of course, James Bond himself,plus his supporting cast at MI6--but only as they behaved in this particular story.
Shortly thereafter,the EON James Bond movie series began.Apparently,without any knowledge of McClory's rights to everything created for Thunderball,EON began introducing SPECTRE into their films beginning with the first entry:Dr.No.EON has always claimed that at that time, they thought Fleming owned SPECTRE and that--which is what McClory reportedly also said about the screen treatments when they were first being developed--it made greater sense to use an apolitical group of bad guys rather than deal with real world issues.(It's not an accident that in the From Russia With Love movie,the villains all belong to SPECTRE as opposed to the SMERSH of the FRWL novel--which itself was loosely based upon an actual Soviet organization of the same name that was active during World War II).
In 1964 Goldfinger was a huge hit and it, more than any other James Bond movie, set the standard for future entries-they'd all be big adventure stories with colorful larger-than-life villains, whose schemes would be equally large.Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman agreed that Thunderball would be the ideal follow-up to Goldfinger.It had everything anyone could want for a Bond movie.Handled properly,it'd be the epic of the series.But there was only one problem--the rights to this story didn't belong to the Fleming estate.Another filmmaker held them.
EON cut a deal with McClory.He would serve in the official capacity as the producer of Thunderball while Cubby and Harry "presented" it.All of the actors and resources of EON--including THE James Bond,Sean Connery--at that time one of the most popular actors in the world--would be involved in this film.
Thunderball was an enormous hit.On a personal note,I clearly remember seeing it during it's first week in theatres.Thunderball was more than a motion picture:it was an event.Among other things it underscored how important Sean Conney was to the success of the EON productions.
In some places in the USA and also abroad,theatres stayed open day and night to show this film to eager audiences.It was unique among the Bond films.In the 1960s people didn't travel as much as they do today,so the Bahamas were still an exotic locale.There'd never been a motion picture with as much first-rate underwater sequences as Thunderball featured, nor had so many gorgeous young actresses worn such daring bathing suits and skimpy bikinis on the screen.And the villains' evil plot--while credible enough--was still considered pretty fantastic in 1965.Composer John Barry produced one of his most popular and critically praised scores for this film."Look Up!Look Down!Look Out!" the copy beside the Bob McGinnis/Frank McCarthy painted posters blared.There was something for everyone in this movie.
Thunderball made a lot of money for EON.It's still the most successful James Bond film in the series' history when adjusted for inflation.
And when Eon made the deal with McClory to make Thunderball,it was with the express agreement that McClory could--if he so desired--remake this motion picture after a period of ten years had passed.
Ever since 1975,McClory attempted to remake Thunderball.He always retained the basic plot, with terrorists holding nuclear devices and threatening the world,but he often changed characters,plotpoints and locales from the Thunderball story.Sometimes he went too far afield and tried to change the story too much.He'd used elements from the other unfilmed screen treatments in order to put something a little different from the original film into his new production.He also sued EON for their continual use of Blofeld and SPECTRE(EON eventually --and literally-- dropped their use of Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only when Roger Moore's 007 unceremoniously drops his archenemy down a factory chimneystack.This was a response to McClory as well as a dramatic link to the OHMSS film.).Every step of the way,EON's legal teams found perfectly legitimate ways to keep McClory's Thunderball remakes from being made.
Finally,in 1983,entertainment lawyer Jack Schwartzman(husband of actress Talia Shire and father of the actor Jason Schwartzman)joined forces with Kevin McClory, and he found a way to legally remake Thunderball without facing any problems from EON.The solution was simple and obvious:just remake Thunderball in as recognizable a fashion as possible.No massive deviations in the plotline or in the supporting characters or in the villains or the heroine or anything else.A few of the supporting characters might be of different nationalities,perhaps--this time around,the French Domino became an Italian American and the Italian playboy Emilio Largo, became an Austrian named Maximillian Larg,but they kept their names and their pre-established personas from Thunderball.Even Largo's yacht "The Disco Volante" was retained-it's name now translated into English as "The Flying Saucer".Fatima Blush--only a name in one of the early film treatments became the monnicker of the movie's sexy villainess (closely modeled on 1965's Fiona Volpe) in this newer iteration of Thunderball.But the only reason the film was ever made was because the original James Bond was willing to reprise his signature role for this production.
By 1983,Sean Connery had established himself as a popular and successful actor apart from the James Bond series.He'd been in a number of interesting motion pictures.As is the case for every actor,not every movie Connery made was a masterpiece-but a majority of his films were very well accepted indeed.They were certainly the kinds of films the critics and the public and those within the film industry itself found notable and praiseworthy.They showed that Connery's stardom was no accident.Some of these films were:The Hill,The Offence,The Molly Maguires,Murder on the Orient Express,The Wind and the Lion,The Man Who Would be King,Robin and Marian,A Bridge Too Far,Cuba,and The First Great Train Robbery.Connery had proven that he could play a variety of parts and be accepted in them, and had finally come to terms with having once played James Bond.Being associated with the role no longer bothered him as much as it had when he was younger.For this new 007 film,Connery made certain he was well paid, and paid upfront for his services.
The newest version of Thunderball was titled Never Say Never Again.Mrs.Connery had suggested this--pointing out that Connery had often said to her that he wouldn't be playing James Bond again.But at age 52, he was 007 once more.
Never Say Never Again wasn't an EON film so the famous Monty Norman James Bond theme and the familiar gunbarrel sequence couldn't be used, along with other staples associated with the Broccoli/Saltzman productions.
1983 was the historic summer when two new James Bond films appeared in the cinema.Old friends Sean Connery and Roger Moore joked about fact that their two movies,EON's Octopussy and Taliafilm's Never Say Never Again would be playing in opposition to each other.Both movies of these films did good business with Octopussy slightly edging out Never Say Never Again.
That's the (all too) long answer.Hopefully it helps explain the differences and similarities between Thunderball and Never Say Never Again.Incidentally,about a year or two ago,Kevin McClory's copyright on Thunderball expired, and before he could renew it,EON swept in and acquired the film rights to Thunderball.As a result,there won't be any more McClory renegade productions of Thunderball.Those days are over forever.
And I agree with Dan--there was absolutely no reason whatsoever for Sean Connery to not come up with the best possible deal for himself to play James Bond once again.Yes,EON had made him an international movie star and they established him as James Bond, but they never paid Connery what he was worth.As an actor he could--and often did--make much better money elsewhere.Terence Young once pointed out in an interview given around 1966 or so that all EON really had to do to keep Connery's services was to make him a third partner in their production company.There was plenty of money to go around,he reasoned, and in Sean Connery Terence Young saw someone who could be the British equivalent of Clark Gable.He said it'd be a great shame if EON let Connery get away.Which,of course,is exactly what happened.
And for whatever it's worth,Cubby Broccoli and Sean Connery renewed their friendship shortly before Cubby passed away.As soon as he learned about the severity of Cubby's illness,Sean telephoned Cubby every day and any past grievances they might have had were quickly forgotten.Donald Zec, who cowrote Cubby's autobiography,When The Snow Melts,contributes a moving chapter recounting Cubby's last days.It turns out that Cubby had many friends--and one of them was Sean Connery.
Additionally, it's not as if his appearence in Time Bandits is a starring role. Even Gilliam admitted that they got COnneyr because he wasnt as in demand as he had been. He also did Zardoz.
To be fair to Connery, he did donate his DAF fee to charity.