The BJMDDS General Discussion Thread......

[Bond77]

No I am not GS. I am glad we got that settled although he sounds like a charming fellow.

Connery was fed up with Bond in YOLT, he turned down 2 lucrative offers CR and OHMSS. After a break of 3 years he came back for DAF, it was a two picture deal. I don't know why he did it really he turned down the same salary beforein 1967 & 1968 and then more for the next one. That probably puzzled Cubby the most, why would any one turn down the money and prestige of being Jame bond and he had two recalcitrant actors do it to his face. Still Cubby sent Connery scripts for every movie up to Octopussy, apparently Connery could have come back any time he wanted for whatever pay he desired, so sorry Roger old boy.

Of the could have beens' people talk about Lazenby is always at the top, however originally DAF was supposed to be Goldfinger 2 and John Gavin was signed to play Bond. Cubby had the class to pay his contract off in full when Connery came back.

Very interesting stuff Mazer, as always. I didn't know that Cubby was still sending scripts to Connery. I have to think that it shouldn't be taken as a slight against Roger though. I think from reading Moore's biography it seems one thing that was always looming over the Bond franchise was Roger's health, even at the very beginning with Live and Let Die. Cubby probably had to keep his options open, as any good business person would do, and kept a lot of possible Bond replacements in the loop.

An interesting anecdote I read in Moore's book was that for the Concorde scene in Moonraker, where he gets out of the plane once it as landed in Rio, well he had actually just taken that flight for real from France to Rio. He had to take a trip to the emergency room while filming in France. After he was taken care of they flew him to Rio, he got fitted for the suit he was to wear for the role, had him go back into the same airplane, and then filmed him coming out as James Bond!

Regarding the Diamonds Are Forever deal, I think Connery took it because it promised him two more non-Bond pictures, and it gave him a lot of money to start this charity he was working on in Scotland. I think he used every penny (or should say farthing? Brits, help me out!) that he made from Diamonds Are Forever for the upstart of that charity. I think the charity had something to do with education.

Interesting note about "Psycho" John Gavin as well. Not the first time, nor last time, the producers considered casting an American as James Bond (Adam West, Burt Reynolds, James Brolin).

[Mazer Rackham]

Very interesting stuff Mazer, as always. I didn't know that Cubby was still sending scripts to Connery. I have to think that it shouldn't be taken as a slight against Roger though. I think from reading Moore's biography it seems one thing that was always looming over the Bond franchise was Roger's health, even at the very beginning with Live and Let Die. Cubby probably had to keep his options open, as any good business person would do, and kept a lot of possible Bond replacements in the loop.

An interesting anecdote I read in Moore's book was that for the Concorde scene in Moonraker, where he gets out of the plane once it as landed in Rio, well he had actually just taken that flight for real from France to Rio. He had to take a trip to the emergency room while filming in France. After he was taken care of they flew him to Rio, he got fitted for the suit he was to wear for the role, had him go back into the same airplane, and then filmed him coming out as James Bond!

Regarding the Diamonds Are Forever deal, I think Connery took it because it promised him two more non-Bond pictures, and it gave him a lot of money to start this charity he was working on in Scotland. I think he used every penny (or should say farthing? Brits, help me out!) that he made from Diamonds Are Forever for the upstart of that charity. I think the charity had something to do with education.

Interesting note about "Psycho" John Gavin as well. Not the first time, nor last time, the producers considered casting an American as James Bond (Adam West, Burt Reynolds, James Brolin).

The story goes that Connery didn't want to do DAF but the producers were approaching him about it primarily because the studios heads really wanted Connery back. Connery not wanting the job names an astronomical figure they'll surly never agree to, but the thing is they had offered him 1m for OHMSS, Columbia offered a similar amount if Connery made CR without Cubby and co. When Connery named the 1m+ salary he had to know there was every chance they would take him up on it.

The charity angle the way I've heard it is his salary was give to the charity (Scottish Education Trust) and the percentage of the profits and merchandising still came to him as fruits of his labor.
I know there were two non-bond films attached to the deal, one was made and something screwed the pooch on the other. I can't remember what now, I want to say it was another version of the same Shakespeare play being made at the same time.

Donating the salary to charity was noble and worthy, it is not my intention to take away from his generosity I am only pointing out he still was paid for his work. God knows if I get 1.1m pounds it is not going to any charity.

[bjmdds]

Mazer knows interesting stuff. How? Connery could have been Bond for 20 years? Interesting. I wonder how Moore's films would have played out with a 45-ish Connery in the role.

[katied]

Mazer knows interesting stuff. How? Connery could have been Bond for 20 years? Interesting. I wonder how Moore's films would have played out with a 45-ish Connery in the role.

I can't pictures Seannery in, say, LALD. And I LIKE the guy!

I doubt we would have had Roger Moore as his replacement after 20 years. The replacement Connery would have had after 20 years of being Bond would have been a hip or knee replacement-or both.(thank you,I'll be here all week!)

[The Sweeney]

What were the problems with Roger's health during the 70's?

[Bond77]

What were the problems with Roger's health during the 70's?

I don't have the book on me know so I am going to have to go off memory. I think he suffered renal colic on and off throughout the 1970's. He got really sick with something while filming The Spy Who Loved Me. I don't remember what it was, but I remember him writing about how they had to postpone some scenes because his face had gotten very swollen. He said he cracked his teeth and I think broke a bone while filming a boat sequence in Live and Let Die. He was very accident and illness prone, and it took a toll on him. I think that's one of the reasons why he considered leaving the role after Moonraker, even though the film was a huge success.

[katied]

I seem to remember reading that both Sir Rog and Jane Seymour got dysentery while filming LALD.

[Gary Seven]

Mazer knows interesting stuff. How? Connery could have been Bond for 20 years? Interesting. I wonder how Moore's films would have played out with a 45-ish Connery in the role.

Connery could have been Bond until the late 1980s. He did have a career outside Bond and was sick of being Bond early into his stint.

[Mazer Rackham]

I seem to remember reading that both Sir Rog and Jane Seymour got dysentery while filming LALD.

Sir Rog was never particularly healthy. I though he was diagnosed with something in the early 1980s when his time as Bond was winding down. I do know he had several bouts of kidney stones while filming Bond.

Offscreen, he has had to fight for his life several times.

He came close to death as a small boy in the pre-antibiotics era after contracting double pneumonia. Suffering prostate cancer in 1993, he faced his mortality and made life-changing decisions as a result. And four years ago he was diagnosed with a lethally slow heartbeat after collapsing on stage in New York.

Aged five, (in 1932) I had double pneumonia and was too sick to be moved to hospital.'

In his 30s, Sir Roger endured the first of three operations to remove kidney stones, formed when the minerals found in urine crystallise.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z0iSMxdqRN

He catalogues the ailments and operations he suffered as an only child growing up in Stockwell, South London, which must have terrified his parents Lily and George, a policeman.

Mumps, measles, chickenpox - 'I nearly died of double bronchial pneumonia at the age of five' - and unsurprisingly he shudders at the mention of chloroform, which was used to put him under for surgery to circumcise him at the age of eight after an infection.

Then there was the tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, yellow jaundice and the time he split his jaw open in a Jeep accident as an 18-year-old doing National Service in the Army. 'Oh, and then they whipped out my appendix in Hamburg.'

Sir Roger cannot let his teenage years go by without mentioning that he has always had a slight weight problem, despite standing at 6ft 2in. 'I was considered chubby as a teen,' he sighs. But surely not too chubby. For after RADA training, he supplemented his income as a jobbing actor with work as a knitwear model.

http://mixmysalad.blogspot.com/2009/04/ ... moore.html

[bjmdds]

Now Bullock's hubby cheated too. Another fraud of a marriage in Hollywood.

[katied]

Sir Rog was never particularly healthy. I though he was diagnosed with something in the early 1980s when his time as Bond was winding down. I do know he had several bouts of kidney stones while filming Bond.

He was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. I remember reading about it.

[bjmdds]

So does Ann Margret's hubby Roger Smith. Green Zone bombed big time for ass---- Damon at $14 million, with a $100 million budget. This anti-American liberal propaganda trash deserved what it got. It's funny how these pacifist liberals in Hollywood love to mimic war in films but when it is needed in real life, they retreat like the sick cowards they are. Damon can go to hell for all I care now and the Bourne role was just another anti-USA government film he loved doing. Mamma Mia did almost as well in the UK as Avatar is doing. Pierce must really be popular there.

[Omega]

I didn't know about how sick Roger Moore was. Could that be why his Bond was the way he was, they made him invulnerable because Roger was so ill from time to time.

A funny thought what if Sam Mendes drops out as a possible director for concerns of alimony

[katied]

A funny thought what if Sam Mendes drops out as a possible director for concerns of alimony

Ouch! Well, Kate(Winslet) probably makes enough that she doesn't need alimony.That doesn't mean she won't ask for it!

[FormerBondFan]

Damon can go to hell for all I care now and the Bourne role was just another anti-USA government film he loved doing.

We need Damon for Bourne 4.

[Omega]

A funny thought what if Sam Mendes drops out as a possible director for concerns of alimony

Ouch! Well, Kate(Winslet) probably makes enough that she doesn't need alimony.That doesn't mean she won't ask for it!

Some are saying they split because of "boredom" others that he cheated on her. If it is true he cheated on her and that comes out I wouldn't want him as a director for Bond 23. It's Kate Winslet he is cheating on to me that is a crime. Kate call me

[katied]

What an idiot Mendes is. He's the Tiger Woods of filmmaking!

[Omega]

What an idiot Mendes is. He's the Tiger Woods of filmmaking!

Maybe. Can his thirst be quenched? Tiger's can't

[katied]

OMG did anyone watch South Park last night? The golfing video game, with Tiger and Elin beating the crap out of each other.That was hysterical!

[oscartheman]

Damon can go to hell for all I care now and the Bourne role was just another anti-USA government film he loved doing.

We need Damon for Bourne 4.

I don't think so.The wheels fell off that franchise as well the "gritty" "real world" spy steered the Bond makes down a dead end alley.