MovieChat Forums > Never Say Never Again (1983) Discussion > So, what was the point of making the mov...

So, what was the point of making the movie?

posted 10 years ago by A_Boy_And_His_Dog
14 replies | jump to latest

Let me preface that I only recently got into Bond films, and I haven't seen most of them, including this one. So I can't call it bad or good because I haven't seen it, for those of you who came in this post expecting criticism or something.
But, since it's basically a remake of Thunderball (which is what I read, anyway), Connery said that he wouldn't return to be Bond again, and Eon had already made plenty of films with other Bond actors, it just sort of leaves me to wonder, why was it even made?
I'm genuinely curious, maybe someone who knows more about the background can tell me.

[–] mobile-707 9 years ago

NSNA was not produced by EON. EON/Danjaq/etc. had nothing to do with it.

After some very expensive, drawn-out litigation, Fleming's co-author on Thunderball -- Kevin McClory -- won the right to produce his own James Bond movie, but the script had to be based on Thunderball, and it had to wait 10 years until after Thunderball had been released. Never Say Never Again was the result.

[–] dr-ghall1138 9 years ago

Yes yes you are correct. Also Sean had to make a seventh because he didn't want Roger to have more than he.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] mikethemartian (6710) 5 years ago

Supposedly McClory wanted to make a more ambitious remake of Thunderball called Warhead but it didn’t work. If I’m not mistaken I think all the rights to the Thunderball story have now been merged with the EON rights due to mergers.

[–] IMDB_Vits 9 years ago

It's common for film adaptations to be remade to be more faithful to the source material. It's a way of paying respect to the material, its author and the fan base.

[–] Vid-2 9 years ago

To make money!!!

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Walker-J3 9 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_McClory

Read this. it should explain it.

[–] KingCobra686 9 years ago

The answer is what Mobile said. Someone involved with the original Thunderball movie won the rights to make a remake. This is basically a rogue movie that was made outside of the normal group that made the rest of the movies.

There was a good documentary on Netflix that covered a lot of the history of the 007 films, including this part. Can't remember what the name of it was, or if it is still on Netflix, but its worth checking out.

[–] cartesianthought 9 years ago

1. Connery wanted money.

2. People wanted Connery to come back.

[–] TMC-4 (20123) 5 years ago

Basically, the producers of that movie kept asking Sean Connery to come back and star in the movie, he kept saying he was never going to play James Bond again. So they keep asking him, with more and more money, and he keeps saying no. Eventually, after this back and forth he agreed. His wife suggested that the movie be called Never Say Never Again, since he went back on his word.

[–] ebhaynz (3688) 5 years ago

It really was a cash grab as the Bond movies were always going to make money. Both NSNA and Octopussy came out in the same year and each made a load of cash.

[–] PetyrBaelish (124) 5 years ago

Connery wanted to stick it to Cubby (they had a huge feud back then) and McClory gave him much more creative control of NSNA, which Connery never got with EON Bond movies.

[–] Washingtonnative (2613) 5 years ago

The only point was Bond, James Bond!