NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN - GUNBARREL

Arlington Beach

Hi there folks, my first posting here as a member.

Does anyone know if the gunbarrel was actually shot? I know they couldn't copy it exactly as EON had created due to copyright. However I've read in more than one place, a propsed re-imagining of the gunbarrel was developed. The real evidence to this is on the soundtrack, Track 1 being 'Bond back in action', not used in the film - on listening it certainly sounds like it. As composers generally score with a working print in front of them - it begs the question, was it indeed filmed?

Does anyone know how much or what indeed was cut from the actual release? Or indeed who has a copy of the script to confirm.

Thanks so much

JennyFlexFan

I don't know if it was filmed, but I think they had the option to do a gunbarrel-esque opening but ultimately went with the red 007 logos. Perhaps it was filmed? I hear that NSNA cut out a LOT of stuff, and many tracks in Michel Legrand's score ended up not being used so maybe somewhere there is footage...

taity

I think that EON would have licences out on the gunbarrel and the James Bond theme - after all, EON created them, theyd have the right to protect them.

JennyFlexFan

Right, but they were going to do something along the lines of that.

Willie Garvin

That's highly unlikely.After literally decades of legal wranglings with Eon's lawyers to finally assure that he really had the right to remake Thunderball, it's difficult to believe that Kevin McClory and his partner Jack Shwartzman--the entertainment lawyer who ironed out all of the details so that Eon's many lawyers couldn't find a loophole in order to halt this particular film's production--might do anything that would stop their production and send them right back to court.

The principal reason the courts agreed that Never Say Never Again could even be made was because McClory/Shwartzman agreed in writing to make their film resemble Thunderball as much as possible.Initially, McClory had wanted to do something radically different, with an entirely different storyline and supporting characters--in the hopes of possibly making more than one James Bond film of his own(based upon the various rough drafts he was awarded at the end of his successful plagerism suit against Ian Fleming)--but the only movie he had any legal right to remake was Thunderball.

The biggest selling point for Never Say Never Again is Sean Connery reprising his role as James Bond.For at least one generation of filmgoers, the presence of the original James Bond playing 007 again--even for a production company other than Eon--was surely much more important for Never Say Never Again, than any questionable attempt to include something similar to the world famous 007 gunbarrel sequence, which belongs exclusively to Eon Productions.Taliafilm knew that Cubby Broccoli's lawyers would be kept aware of the making of NSNA,and did not want to invite any trouble.

Arlington Beach

Thanks for your replies.

Sure but, you are copy-righting the style and look of the gunbarrel and the music, not the look of one which is man-made or someone shooting through it. I'm under no doubt it would not have looked the same as you have pointed out due to legaility and certainly wouldn't have been shot in the same manner again due to the latter.

Many spoofs have used this and the track on the album even features the gun being fired at the end. I know Wikipedia isn't always accurate but I also found it on their too, someone pointed out the soundtrack notes on the album mention it as well.

Wikipedia..

'McClory originally planned for the film to open with some version of the famous "gunbarrel" opening as seen in the official Bond series, but ultimately the film opens with a screenful of "007" symbols instead. When the soundtrack for the film was released on CD, it included a piece of music composed for the proposed opening.'


Bizarre, perhaps we will never know! Though the new book 'Battle of Bond' may shed some light..

Willie Garvin

Agreed.Like you,I suspect that The Battle for Bond will answer most(if not all)of the questions surrounding the Thunderball/Never Say Never Again controversy.:)

taity

Arlington Beach wrote:

Many spoofs have used this and the track on the album even features the gun being fired at the end.

As for the spoofs - under US copyright law, theres something or other that justifys the use of a spoof if it is clearly an attempt to mimic the original. That means if someone were to use the gunbarrel in a paradoy of james bond, it has to be obvious that it is a parady, and not something that the film makers came up with. Thats how the simpsons have managed to do their own.