JAMES BOND ‘MOONRAKER’, 1979 – DIRECTOR’S SCRIPT (3)

A mimeograph typescript director’s script, undated, 160 pp. fastened with hinged metal clasp between brown card covers, no title page, the first page incorrectly titled For Your Eyes Only, crossed out in pencil and inscribed in an unknown hand in pencil MOONRAKER, seven pages with minor annotations in blue ballpoint pen in Gilbert’s hand, the script comprising 1-624 numbered scenes, the dialogue beginning on p.6, Scene 27: ‘Int. M’s Office. Day”; including five separate pages of mimeographed typescript entitled: FYEO  Scene Continuity 19/1/76, the first three of these pages a breakdown of 33 numbered scenes, the remaining two pages, dated January 23,1978 with scene breakdowns numbers 34-39, these five pages apparently a scene breakdown for an early story outline, point 5 states: “Informant slain by Butterfly Girl..” [in this script it’s a “bee brooch which “..takes flight…the tiny golden point of the bee’s proboscis sink into LEFEVRE’S neck like a hypodermic needle ..”. This motif of the lethal Butterfly/Bee pin brooch was used by Maibaum in his Nov.5.1975 draft of the screenplay [see lot 514].The main female protagonist appears in scene 6, p.1 and is described as: “Major Eve Scott (Holly Goodhead – or similar)”. The final point 49 states: “Continue from here, according to Chris Wood outline, to end..” ; and

- A black and white press still of Lewis Gilbert with Cubby Broccoli, Roger Moore and Lois Chiles posing on a Parisian rooftop in 1978 – 20.5 x 26 cm.; and

- An autograph letter, signed, to Lewis Gilbert from his long-term collaborator, Vernon Harris, dated 8.1.88 enclosing the revised script for For Your Eyes Only [not present], telling Gilbert: “ I hope you’ll have approved the script – as far as I can see, every change is exactly what we agreed on at our last meeting at Weybridge..” 1p. 

It is interesting to note that the script in this lot had original title had been For Your Eyes Only as this had been the Bond film publicized to succeed The Spy Who Loved Me as the eleventh 007 movie in the series. However, shortly after the For Your Eyes Only succession plan announcement in 1977 the Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope  phenomenon occurred. The Bond producers decided to cash in on the massive resurgence of interest in the Sci-Fi genre and brought in Moonraker due to its space theme, shelving For Your Eyes Only until 1981. The budget for Moonraker was four times that of Star Wars and is said to have cost nearly as much as the first eight Bond films combined. Lewis Gilbert commented: “…I used to make entire feature films for less than the Moonraker telephone bill..”  However, it paid off, Moonraker became the highest grossing Bond movie until the release of GoldenEye in 1995.

Vernon Harris’ letter to Gilbert, written in January 1988 and enclosing a script for For Your Eyes Only is particularly intriguing as it post-dates the film’s release in 1981.

Photograph Sold Without Copyright

Condition Report: Overall very good

Literature:

GILBERT, Lewis All My Flashbacks The Autobiography of Lewis Gilbert, Sixty Years A Film Director, Reynolds & Hearn, London, 2010

FIELD, Matthew & CHOWDHURY, Ajay Some Kind Of Hero, The Remarkable Story of The James Bond Films, Cheltenham Glouc.,2015

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Bellmans is grateful to Wallace and Hodgson for their assistance with cataloguing the Lewis Gilbert Film Script and Production Archive.