James Bond/Trivia


 * Dr. No
 * From Russia With Love
 * On Her Majesty's Secret Service
 * Goldeneye
 * Tomorrow Never Dies
 * Die Another Day
 * Casino Royale


 * In the film of The Man With The Golden Gun, Scaramanga is Bond's Evil Counterpart and, since he's played by Christopher Lee, an immensely dignified badass. In Ian Fleming's novel, he's a sexually ambiguous carny with an elephant fetish. The book also features a sex scene between a stripper and a giant hand.
 * There have been 9 variations on the iconic gunbarrel opening:
 * The first one, with Stunt Double Bob Simmons as the Bond. This one was used from Dr. No to Goldfinger. The "Bond" is actually a silhouette.
 * When the aspect ratio changed, the sequence had to be re-done. This version used Connery, and was the first version to "expand" onto the screen. This edition was seen in Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. It was filmed in black-and-white, and a sepia tint was added for two of those movies.
 * Lazenby featured in the gunbarrel sequence only once. His Bond drops to one knee when firing and is wiped out by the blood.
 * Roger Moore was the first Bond to shoot the sequence twice--again, necessitated by an aspect ratio change. He's the first Bond to lose the hat, too.
 * Timothy Dalton filmed it once.
 * Pierce Brosnan also filmed once. This is the first digitally-generated gunbarrel. Die Another Day had a bullet added in, in celebration of the double anniversary.
 * To signify the reboot status in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's gunbarrel was actually incorporated into the opening sequence, with the blood now being opaque. It's the second gunbarrel to segue directly into the opening.
 * Finally, Quantum of Solace featured a return of sorts to the "classic" form. It was now at the end of the movie, featured a different barrel and Craig became the first Bond to be shown walking away at the end

Literature Trivia

 * Old Shame: Ian Fleming hated The Spy Who Loved Me to the point of only selling the title to the producers.
 * What Could Have Been: The Climax! TV special adaptation of Casino Royale lead to Ian Fleming being offered a hand in developing a Bond TV series. Fleming wrote a series of outlines for the show but negotiations fell through and it didn't get made. However, Fleming salvaged the outlines and used them to create the eighth Bond novel, For Your Eyes Only.

Film Trivia

 * The Other Darrin: Bond, obviously. But also other recurring characters such as M, Moneypenny, Blofeld, Felix (especially) and even Q between Dr No and From Russia With Love.
 * The Pete Best: Contrary to popular belief, Sean Connery wasn't the first actor to portray James Bond. Barry Nelson, an american, played him first by a good eight years before Connery. He played James Bond as an American named "Jimmy Bond" in the Climax! adaptation of Casino Royale mentioned above. Both his portrayal, and the Climax episode at that, are barely even mentioned in most Bond related merch or books. The episode, a live broadcast, was considered lost until a kinescope emerged in the 1980s almost 30 years after the fact. What makes him The Pete Best though is that even when he had played him before, he wasn't even considered for the role for Dr. No, although the fact he was american and older than Connery by almost thirteen years probably didn't help his case.
 * Sort of, Peter Burton played a character named Major Boothroyd in Dr. No, before Desmond Llewelyn made the role as Q.
 * Star-Making Role: For Connery, Dalton and Craig.
 * Steven Spielberg always wanted to direct a James Bond movie, but Albert R. Broccoli rejected him twice. The first time, early in Spielberg's career, Broccoli turned him down because he was young, inexperienced, and unknown. He approached Broccoli again after directing Jaws, but Broccoli wouldn't hire him because he was afraid he'd demand too much money.
 * Thunderball began its life as a screenplay written by Kevin Mcclory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming (copyright dictates in that order). When the movie wasn't getting made, Fleming turned it into a book which led Mcclory to sue. As a result of the lawsuit, EON couldn't make Thunderball as the first Bond movie, so instead they went with Dr No.
 * Both Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton were offered Bond at least ten years before they were able to take it. Cary Grant was also offered Dr No and Howard Hawks reportedly wanted to make a Casino Royale movie starring him, in the former case EON decided he was too old (Grant was in his late fifties at this point) and went with Sean Connery instead, and in the latter Hawks lost interest.
 * The biggest what could have been of them all: George Lazenby was originally going to be signed to do seven films, not just one, but his agent convinced him that Bond was a dated character that wouldn't last, and thus Lazenby decided to leave after OHMSS. Lazenby fired his agent soon after, and till this day, freely admits he made a mistake.
 * In a similar vein, the reason that Sean Connery got so pissed off with the Bond people ultimately had to do with working on You Only Live Twice. Ironically he later said that he would've much preferred to do a Bond film like OHMSS.