Ian Fleming wrote the original story "
For Your Eyes Only" as an episode of a cancelled
James Bond television series at
CBS in 1958. Eon Productions originally intended to produce
For Your Eyes Only after
The Spy Who Loved Me. However, after the success of
Star Wars in 1977 the producers decided to produce
Moonraker instead.
Moonraker was successful yet was very expensive to produce, and shortly afterwards
United Artists suffered a major financial flop with
Michael Cimino's ''
Heaven's Gate. This, along with the early 1980s recession, required For Your Eyes Only
to have a lower budget. For Your Eyes Only'' marked a change in the make up of the production crew. The previous series directors
Terence Young,
Guy Hamilton,
Lewis Gilbert and
Peter Hunt were unable to direct because the studio could not afford to hire them, and
John Glen was promoted from his duties as a
film editor to director, a position he would occupy for four subsequent films. Glen decided to symbolically represent it with a scene where Bond's
Lotus blows itself up and forces 007 to rely on Melina's more humble
Citroën 2CV.
Writing Before the project was postponed in favour of
Moonraker,
Tom Mankiewicz had written a storyline and
Christopher Wood submitted a first draft in January 1978. However, their screenplay did not influence the final film. The pre-title sequence of
For Your Eyes Only has been described as either "out-of place and disappointing" or "roaringly enjoyable". The scene was shot to introduce a potential new Bond to audiences, thus linking the new actor to elements from previous Bond films (see
casting, below). The sequence begins with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife
Tracy Bond, before a
Universal Exports helicopter picks him up for an emergency. Control of the helicopter is taken over by remote control by a bald man in a grey
Nehru jacket with a white cat. This character is unnamed in either the film or the credits, although he looks and sounds like
Ernst Stavro Blofeld as played by
Donald Pleasence or
Telly Savalas. Director John Glen referred to the identity of the villain obliquely: "We just let people use their imaginations and draw their own conclusions ... It's a legal thing". Originally the character was going to be explicitly identified as Blofeld, but was deliberately not named due to copyright restrictions with
Kevin McClory, who owned the film rights to
Thunderball, which supposedly includes the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organisation
SPECTRE, and other material associated with the development of
Thunderball.
Eon disputed McClory's ownership of the Blofeld character, but decided not to use him again: the scene was "a deliberate statement by Broccoli of his lack of need to use the character." Maibaum later said "We tried to return to the earlier films with
For Your Eyes Only but we didn't have Sean to make it real. And I was very disappointed with the way the love story was handled. The whole idea was that the great lover James Bond can't get to first base with this woman because she was so obsessed with avenging her parents' death. Nothing was ever done with it. It was as if the director didn't feel there was a love story there at all."
Casting Roger Moore had originally signed a three-film contract with Eon Productions, which covered his first three appearances (
Live and Let Die in 1973,
The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and
The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977). Subsequent to this, the actor negotiated contracts on a film-by-film basis starting with
Moonraker in 1979. Uncertainty surrounding his involvement in
For Your Eyes Only, considering his age, led to other actors being considered to take over. The candidates included
Lewis Collins, known in the UK for his portrayal of Bodie in
The Professionals;
Ian Ogilvy, known for his role as Simon Templar in
Return of the Saint;
Michael Billington, who previously appeared in
The Spy Who Loved Me as Agent XXX's ill-fated lover Sergei Barzov; and
Michael Jayston, who had appeared as Quiller in the television series
Quiller.
Timothy Dalton was strongly considered for the role, but he disliked the direction the series was taking at the time, and he withdrew himself from contention.
Bernard Lee died of cancer on 16 January 1981, after filming began on
For Your Eyes Only, but before he could film his scenes as
M, the head of MI6, as he had done in the previous eleven films of the series. Out of respect, no new actor was hired to assume the role as Broccoli refused to have the character recast and, instead, the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave, letting Chief of Staff Bill Tanner take over the role as acting head of MI6 and briefing Bond alongside the Minister of Defence. This is only the second time M has been omitted from a Bond production, the first being the 1954 TV adaptation of
Casino Royale. Ironically, the original "For Your Eyes Only" short story dealt with Bond being given a personal mission by M, one of the few times in the Fleming canon that 007 did his superior a direct favour.
Chaim Topol was cast following a suggestion by Broccoli's wife Dana, while
Julian Glover joined the cast as the producers felt he was stylish—Glover was even considered to play Bond at some point, but Michael G. Wilson stated that "when we first thought of him he was too young, and by the time of
For Your Eyes Only he was too old".
Carole Bouquet was a suggestion of United Artists publicist Jerry Juroe, and after Glen and Broccoli saw her in
That Obscure Object of Desire, they went to Rome to invite Bouquet for the role of Melina. On 15 September
principal photography started on Corfu at the Villa Sylva at Kanoni, above
Corfu Town, which acted as the location of the Spanish villa. Many of the local houses were painted white for
scenographic reasons. Glen opted to use the local slopes and olive trees for the chase scene between Melina's
Citroën 2CV and Gonzales's men driving
Peugeot 504s. Four 2CVs were used, with modifications for the stunts—all had more powerful
flat-four engines, and one received a special revolving plate on its roof so it could rotate once it got turned upside down. In October filming moved to other Greek locations, including
Meteora and the
Achilleion. In November, the main unit moved to England, which included interior work in Pinewood, while the second unit shot underwater scenes in
the Bahamas. On 1 January 1981, production moved to
Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, where filming wrapped in February. Since it was not snowing in Cortina d'Ampezzo by the time of filming, the producers had to pay for trucks to bring snow from nearby mountains, which was then dumped in the city's streets. Many of the underwater scenes, especially involving close-ups of Bond and Melina, were
faked on a dry soundstage. A combination of lighting effects, slow-motion photography, wind and bubbles added in post-production, gave the illusion of the actors being underwater. Actress Carole Bouquet reportedly had a pre-existing health condition that prevented her from performing underwater stunt work. Roger Moore was reluctant to film the scene of Bond kicking a car, with Locque inside, over the edge of a cliff, saying that it "was Bond-like, but not Roger Moore Bond-like." Roger Moore said he had a great fear of heights, and to do the climbing in Greece, he resorted to moderate drinking to calm his nerves. The stunt was dangerous, since the sudden rope jerk at the bottom could be fatal. Special effects supervisor
Derek Meddings developed a system that would dampen the stop, but Sylvester recalled that his nerves nearly got the better of him: "From where we were [shooting], you could see the local cemetery; and the box [to stop my fall] looked like a casket. You didn't need to be an English major to connect the dots." The stunt went off without a problem. The helicopter
G-BAKS, an
Agusta-Bell 206B JetRanger II, crashed in fog on 14 November 1997, killing the pilot at
Cocking, West Sussex; it was built on 28 December 1972 for
Galliford Construction.
Music The score of
For Your Eyes Only was written by
Bill Conti, who retained some
John Barry-influenced brass elements in the score, but also added elements of dance and funk music. While one reviewer observed that "Bill Conti's score is a constant source of annoyance", The producers of the film hired
Debbie Harry to sing Conti and Leeson's song, but she quit when the producers refused to allow her band
Blondie to write and perform an original song for the film. Blondie's rejected song, titled "For Your Eyes Only," can be found on their 1982 album,
The Hunter. ==Release and reception==