Now pay close attention, 007. There have been numerous ‘alternative’ scripts and screen treatments for the James Bond films over the years, and one such was a version of Moonraker that was put together by none other than Gerry Anderson, Britain’s leading master of sci-fi shows on TV in the 1960s and 1970s.
Although there has been some awareness of this in recent times, Anderson’s proposed film version of Ian Fleming’s third smash-hit novel has not really received the attention it deserves in Bond movie history.
But to the delight of both sci-fi and Bond aficionados, the latest edition of Infinity, the UK’s popular and glossy sci-fi nostalgia and cult fantasy magazine, has devoted a great article to the big ‘what might have been’ version of Moonraker that Anderson and his regular co-writer Tony Barwick put together, for what was originally going to be EON’s Bond film number seven.
Infinity has been very generous to Bond fans in recent years, with some excellent coverage of all topics Bond, and the latest edition more than lives up to this high standard. The magazine’s new 007 article, penned by writer Barry McCann, points out that the unearthing of Anderson’s long since buried screen treatment has shed new light on this fascinating, if rather neglected, aspect of Bond history. The treatment did not come to light until after Anderson’s death, having been rediscovered by his son Jamie Anderson.
Try Another Way
As Bond fans know, the seventh Bond movie in EON’s franchise eventually became Diamonds Are Forever (1971), but back in the 1960s the Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli had apparently envisaged turning to Moonraker as the next choice of novel to be filmed after On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
Indeed, lunar consciousness was truly ‘big’ at the time: 1969 was a pivotal year in the space-race between the superpowers, and the USA had won that race with the triumph of Apollo 11 and the first human landing on the moon. Space, and everything orbital, was thus very much on everybody’s radar, and EON seemingly thought it would be timely to revisit a space-themed plot, as they had previously done so with the film version of You Only Live Twice in 1967. As Barry McCann notes, Moonraker ‘offered the most promise in meeting the planned approach, but Saltzman felt somebody with more experience of producing high action science fiction with lots of futuristic hardware should be brought in’. And Gerry Anderson was certainly a major figure in that particular genre in the British film and television industry at that time.
Anderson (1929-2012), who built up a veritable army of loyal fans over the course of his career, had worked closely with his wife Sylvia (1927-2016), to whom he was married between 1960-1981, to create some of the most best-loved TV sci-shows in the post-war period. These had included Joe 90, Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlett, all filmed in what was now famously called ‘Supermarionation’. Key catchphrases, such as ‘FAB’ from Thunderbirds (meaning message received, or over and out) became beloved by a whole generation of young fans. Gerry had broken new ground in combining exciting story-telling with spectacular models and special effects, and seemed to be the natural ‘go to’ figure for a new film with a space-themed storyline.
Anderson was therefore especially excited when he got an unexpected call from the legendary EON producer Harry Saltzman. In Anderson’s words: ‘What happened was Harry Saltzman called me and said, “Can you come? I would like to see you”. I came and he said, “Gerry, I want you to produce the next Bond film, Moonraker; here is the book’. I almost took off and went into orbit!’
This was a golden opportunity for Gerry Anderson, and he relished the prospect. However, on reading Ian Fleming’s novel, he felt it was ‘terribly outdated’ and ‘frankly not very exciting’. He thus decided to bring in one of his most trusted writing collaborators, Tony Barwick, and they penned a new adaptation of the novel, one which they felt would be more suitable for what they regarded as the contemporary world, with plenty of special effects action and sci-fi style hardware. The result was an 84-page screen treatment. The treatment remained surprisingly close to the novel, despite Anderson’s misgivings, and also included pre-credits scenes set in Brazil and some later scenes at Sir Hugo Drax’s oil refinery based in the Caribbean.
Harry Saltzman was very impressed with the treatment, and wanted his co-producer Cubby to read it. However, what Anderson possibly seriously underestimated is that he was dealing with two hardened and canny veterans in film production, two men who were used to wheeling and dealing and driving a hard bargain in negotiations. Anderson declined an offer of £20,000 by Saltzman to buy the treatment from him, having decided to hold out in the hope that he would get to produce the movie itself, as Kevin McClory had done in a deal made with EON for Thunderball (1965), or at least get to direct it. But it seems this blew Anderson’s chances with the EON producers, and Anderson never heard back from them about his proposed version of Moonraker.
EON’s adaptation of Moonraker would not appear until the late 1970s, with Roger Moore as James Bond in his fourth 007 adventure, based on a screen treatment by Christopher Wood which, ironically, radically departed from much of the original Fleming novel. It was a box-office triumph and must have made Anderson nostalgic for what might have been had his own adaptation been accepted. There was also, of course, a recent BBC radio adaptation of Moonraker with Toby Stephens as 007. Interestingly, when Toby Stephens played the villain Gustav Graves in Die Another Day (2002), he is said to have partly based his character on the original Hugo Drax from Fleming’s novel Moonraker.
For more fascinating details on what the Gerry Anderson/ Tony Barwick adaptation of Moonraker entailed, and how it possibly fed certain themes and ideas indirectly into the official EON franchise, do catch the new edition of Infinity. You will not be disappointed.
Infinity no. 86 is on sale now at all good retailers: GBP £4.99, Can $15.99 and US $12.00.
