The "Real" First Bond Film ?

DrMaybe

http://geocities.com/simonbermuda/index.html

An Orson Welles project that never saw the light of day... but what a project!
A very close adaption of Ian Fleming's Moonraker.

Orson Welles was scheduled to direct and star as the lead villain, Hugo Drax.
Unfortunately, he ran into some trouble with the producer (who wanted nudity and sex) and it was dumped. Apparently there is about 40 minutes of salvageable footage.

Dirk Bogarde as the first cinema version of Bond?

Hardyboy

Hate to tell you, DrMaybe, this showed up a few years ago and it's a hoax. A very clever, well-made hoax, but a hoax nonetheless.

chrisno1

Its a great read, though I knew it was a load of pony. It does make you think however...

Orson Welles in his 1950s pomp directing a Bond film? GOOD, Welles has a good visual flair that often suprises the viewer, even his most worst films have a style that makes them watchable.

Dirk Bogarde as Bond? NOT BAD, Fleming favoured Cary Grant or David Niven and Dirk does have that suave sophisticated look, but he also had a tetchiness about him, the public-schoolboy-gone-bad that fits well with Fleming's own descriptions. Bogarde was no beefcake, but I don't think he'd have to be, given MR (the novel) is hardly a fight-fest

Peter Lorre as a henchman? OK, it could be worse - it could be Herve Villachaize - although I always pictured Krebs as more of a muscle man

A nude scene? GOOD, certainly a lot closer to Fleming, although, unlike most of his heroines, Gala Brand only strips to her undies in the novel

Orson Welles as Drax? GOOD, always liked his Le Chiffre until he started playing magic tricks.

It's a lot of fun reading the article and it's well researched and put together even if it is a load of pony.

TonyDP

There was another movie hoax involving Orson Welles a year or two ago. It was perpetrated by comics writer Mark Millar and involved Welles supposedly trying to develop a Batman movie back in the 1940s which would have featured many of the stars of the day as the rogues gallery of villains. Millar even had elaborate design sketches, storyboards and a crude storyline all drawn up. Harry Knowles of AICN fell for it hook, line and sinker and even posted a lengthy commentary on "the ultimate Batman film that never was" (AICN Welles and Batman).

In retrospect, I wonder if these hoaxes are related in any way.

DrMaybe

Well, I got had too. The guy really put it together good. Who determined it to be a hoax, tho? The article links back here to a member.

The only thing that made me scratch my head was Lorre playing a subservient villain. He was still somewhat an "A" lister and had played LeChiffre in the teleplay, so it seemed like a step down for him, playing Welles flunky.