Never Say Never Again had its origins in the early 1960s, following the
controversy over the 1961 Thunderball novel. Fleming had worked with independent producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham on a script for a potential Bond film, to be called
Longitude 78 West, After
Eon Productions started producing the Bond films, it subsequently made a deal with McClory, who would produce
Thunderball, and then not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years, following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965. In the mid-1970s, McClory again started working on a second adaptation of
Thunderball and, with the working title
Warhead, he brought writer
Len Deighton together with Sean Connery to work on a script. A lawsuit with Eon Productions ended in a ruling that McClory owned the sole rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld, forcing Eon to remove them from
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The script ran into difficulties, after accusations from
Danjaq and
United Artists that the project had gone beyond copyright restrictions, which confined McClory to a film based only on the novel
Thunderball; once again, the project was delayed. Towards the end of the 1970s, developments were reported on the project under the name
James Bond of the Secret Service, but when producer
Jack Schwartzman became involved in 1980, and cleared a number of the legal issues that still surrounded the project, to undertake re-writes, although they went uncredited for their efforts, despite much of the final shooting script being theirs. This was because of a restriction by the
Writers Guild of America. Clement and La Frenais continued rewriting during the production, often altering it from day to day. and the producers acknowledged her contribution by listing on the end credits "Title
Never Say Never Again by Micheline Connery". A final attempt by Fleming's trustees to block the film was made in the High Court in London in the spring of 1983, but this was thrown out by the court and
Never Say Never Again was permitted to proceed.
Cast and crew When producer Kevin McClory had first planned the film in 1964, he held initial talks with
Richard Burton for the part of Bond, although the project came to nothing because of the legal issues involved. When the
Warhead project was launched in the late 1970s, a number of actors were mentioned in the trade press, including
Orson Welles for the part of Blofeld,
Trevor Howard to play M and
Richard Attenborough as director. In 1978, the working title
James Bond of the Secret Service was being used and Connery was in the frame once again, potentially going head-to-head with the next Eon Bond film,
Moonraker. By 1980, with legal issues again causing the project to founder, Connery thought himself unlikely to play the role, as he stated in an interview in the
Sunday Express: "When I first worked on the script with Len I had no thought of actually being in the film." When producer Jack Schwartzman became involved, he asked Connery to play Bond; Connery agreed, negotiating a fee of $3 million ($ million in dollars), casting and script approval, and a percentage of the profits. Subsequent to Connery reprising the role, Semple altered the script to include several references to Bond's advancing years – playing on Connery being 52 at the time of filming – and academic Jeremy Black has pointed out that there are other aspects of age and disillusionment in the film, such as the Shrubland's porter referring to Bond's car ("They don't make them like that anymore"), the new M having no use for the 00 section and Q with his reduced budgets. Originally, Semple wanted to emphasize Bond's age even further, writing the script to include him in semi-retirement working aboard a
Scottish fishing trawler hunting
Soviet Navy submarines in the
North Sea. which she lost to
Cher for her role in
Silkwood. Micheline Connery, Sean's wife, had met up-and-coming actress Kim Basinger at the
Grosvenor House Hotel in London and suggested her to Connery; he agreed after
Dalila Di Lazzaro refused the Domino role. For the role of Felix Leiter, Connery spoke with Bernie Casey, saying that, as the Leiter role was never remembered by audiences, using a black Leiter might make him more memorable. Others cast included comedian
Rowan Atkinson, who would later parody Bond in his role of
Johnny English in 2003. Atkinson's character was added by Clement and La Frenais after the production had already started, in order to provide the film with a comic relief. Irvin Kershner, who had previously worked with Connery on
A Fine Madness (1966), and had achieved success in 1980 with
The Empire Strikes Back, was then hired. A number of the crew from the 1981 film
Raiders of the Lost Ark were also appointed, including first assistant director
David Tomblin,
director of photography Douglas Slocombe, second unit director
Mickey Moore and
production designers Philip Harrison and
Stephen Grimes.
Filming '' which acted as Largo's ship, the
Flying Saucer|alt=A large, sleek ship is moored at a quayside Filming for
Never Say Never Again began on 27 September 1982 on the
French Riviera for two months, before moving to
Nassau, the Bahamas in mid-November, where filming took place at Clifton Pier, which was also one of the locations used in
Thunderball. Largo's Palmyran fortress was actually historic
Fort Carré in
Antibes. Largo's ship, the
Flying Saucer, was portrayed by the yacht
Kingdom 5KR, then owned by Saudi billionaire
Adnan Khashoggi and called
Nabila. The underwater scenes were filmed by
Ricou Browning, who had coordinated the underwater scenes in the original
Thunderball.
Steven Seagal, who was a martial arts instructor for this film, broke Connery's wrist while training. On an episode of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Connery revealed he did not know his wrist was broken until over a decade later.
Music James Horner was both Kershner's and Schwartzman's first choice to compose the score, after they were impressed with his work on
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Horner, who worked in London for most of the time, was unavailable, according to Kershner, though Schwartzman later claimed Sean Connery vetoed him. Frequent Bond composer
John Barry was invited, but declined out of loyalty to Eon. The music for
Never Say Never Again was ultimately written by
Michel Legrand, who composed a score similar to his work as a
jazz pianist. The score has been criticised as "anachronistic and misjudged", "bizarrely intermittent" and "the most disappointing feature of the film". Legrand also wrote the main theme "Never Say Never Again", which featured lyrics by
Alan and Marilyn Bergman — who had also worked with Legrand on the Academy Award-winning song "
The Windmills of Your Mind" — and was performed by
Lani Hall after
Bonnie Tyler, who disliked the song, had reluctantly declined.
Phyllis Hyman also recorded a potential theme song, with music written by Stephen Forsyth and lyrics by Jim Ryan, but the song — an unsolicited submission — was passed over, given Legrand's contractual obligations with the music.
Legal substitutions gun barrel sequence.| alt=The outlines of row upon row of "007 007 007 007 007" fill the screen. A view of countryside, heavily obstructed can be seen in through the gaps. Many of the elements of the Eon-produced Bond films were not present in
Never Say Never Again for legal reasons. These included the
gun barrel sequence (although a similar graphic is used for the "shield" during the "video game" sequence). A screen full of 007 symbols appeared instead, and similarly there was no "
James Bond Theme" to use, although no effort was made to supply another tune. A pre-credits sequence was filmed but not used; instead, the film opens with the credits running over the top of the sequence of Bond on a training mission. ==Release and reception==