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Albert R. Broccoli and Roger Moore are grilled by
the American press in August 1981 and asked 'what
next'?
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Moore Uncertainty In 1981
21st January 2011
Shortly after "For Your Eyes Only" opened worldwide
in the summer of 1981, talk was inevitably turned to what and
who the next James Bond adventure would feature. The American
press reported interviews with producer Albert R. Broccoli and
007 star Roger moore in late August 1981 to ask the big question
- would he be back?
The James Bond movies can go on for at last another generation,
but the question arises: Can or will Roger Moore? Moore says
that depends upon how he feels when he gets up of a morning. Albert
Broccoli, producer of the Bond films and the lucky fellow whose
company owns screen rights to the Bond adventures, has
already announced that "Octopussy", a 13th picture
about 007, will be out in 1982. He adds that is Ian Fleming's
books about the secret agent are exhausted, eight short stories
remain to be mined for movie material. Plots by Fleming aren't
even necessary to the production of the Bond films, since a completely
original screenplay was devised to go with the Fleming title "The
Spy Who Loved Me."
While the Bond character belongs to Broccoli, Roger Moore doesn't.
He's played Bond in five of the 007 films, including brand new
one, "For You Eyes Only," but he has to be rehired
for every outing and at some point may become either too expensive
or too tired to continue in the role. "I'm happy to go on
working," says Moore. "I'm happy when anyone sends
me a script." Yet Broccoli, realizing that his star might
not be permanently available, confesses that everything he sees
a new actor on the screen, he automatically wonders, "How
would he be as James Bond?"
Older persons still think of Sean Connery as the consummate
Bond, Broccoli says, "But there's a younger generation that's
only known Roger Moore in the role and accepts him completely." (That
a mid-generation thinks of George Lazenby as Bond is unlikely.)
After establishing his self-confidence by cheerily admitting
he's not sure he's ever escaped Connery's massive shadow, Moore
says he had "a brief 20 minutes of fear" before the
first Bond film with himself in the title role came out. "But
then I figured, 'You're going to have the baby. You're one the
way to the delivery room, and there's nothing you can do about
it now.'"
Moore has done Shakespeare but doesn't hanker to return to such
classic fare, "because it's much easier to say 'I'm Bond,
James Bond.'" And it's more profitable. Escalating production
costs, rather than the possibility that Moore might drop out
of the series, give Broccoli the fidgets. He won't make Bond
pictures unless they can be done properly, he pledges, and a
proper Bond film demands exotic locations, elaborate hardware
and supremely expert crews.
"Moonraker," the highest-grossing Bond movie to date,
grossed more than $100 million, Broccoli says, but "the
profit breaks at $90 million. We are unhappy about the cost of
the pictures, but we can't seem to do anything about it." Russia
is one of the surprising locales to which Broccoli has been invited
to bring a movie company Through the Russian's didn't want him
to shoot a James Bond film at the Kremlin. "Can you imagine
a car chase in Red Square?" Broccoli asks. "They wanted
me to the the picture Warren Beatty is doing." ("Reds," the
story of John Reed.)
While pretty girls buzz about Bond in "For Your Eyes Only," the
picture eschews the boudoir romps associated with the series.
Moore isn't sure how this happened but thinks the omission was
wise. "Consider what you see in other pictures," he
advises. "In my opinion, if you can't top the sex, you should
ignore it."
Professedly happy to stick with Bond while dodging Shakespeare,
Moore occasionally feels a twinge of regret in connection with
his career. "I've never been offered kitchen sink dramas," he
says. "I don't like T-shirts. But sometimes, for the sake
of my children, I would like to play better parts. When they
ask me, 'Why aren't you ever nominated for an Oscar?' I tell
them that Laurence Olivier couldn't be nominated for an Oscar
playing James Bond."
Yet Moore has never regretted being an actor. "The first
time someone asked me, 'Would you like to be an actor?' I rushed
home and told my mother, 'I'm going to be Stewart Granger," he
said. "I haven't made it yet, but some day I'm going to
be. Someday I'm going to be Stewart Granger."
