Why didn't James Brolin make it through?

Cdr_James_Bond · November 2006

Good evening!

First place, I beg your pardon if this has been posted before.
Going to the gist of the matter, I've bought the ultimate dvd collection and yesterday evening I watched the extras in the Octopussy disc2 and to my surprise there's James Brolin's Bond screentest. I have to say that he looked completely the part, he was very fit at time in 1982. Also in the pre-scene comments the very own Brolin talks about how Cubby was delighted with him, and so on.
One thing that's not clear is the reason why Brolin didn't make it. Was it because of Sean Connery's Never Say Never Again? The audiences were going to face two Bond films and EON didn't want to lose the ticket sales, so they hired Moore again. I think that's the main point.

crawfordboon · November 2006

NSNA played a part I'm sure, but more than that it was probably a case of "if it's not broken, don't fix it". Cubby wanted Moore to return for Octopussy but in order to have some bargaining power over Moore's fee for the film, he tested other actors, including Brolin, sending out the hint that at too high a price Roger was replacable. I'm glad they kept Moore for OP and AVTAK - havent' seen the Brolin test but I can't imagine him as Bond.

Loeffelholz · November 2006

Truthfully, I was surprised by how credible Brolin looked in the screen test.

But I don't think Bond should ever be played by an American. He should be British---or as nearly so as possible: Scots, Irish, Aussie, New Zealander, etc...'extended empire,' or however Michael Wilson described it in Craig's presser...

Why didn't James Brolin make it through?

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