Never Say Never Again: Film – Trivia- This film is a remake of Thunderball (1965), with some differences. Claudine Auger played “Domino” in the original film, while Kim Basinger plays the character, now remained “Domino Patachi”. Adolfo Celi, played “Emilio Largo” in the original, while Klaus Maria Brandauer played the character in this film, now renamed “Maximillian Largo”.
- The villain Largo’s yacht “Flying Saucer” was actually the yacht “Trump Princess” known as “Nabila” during filming. In Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, “Flying Saucer” translates as “Disco Volante” which is the name of the yacht in the original version of the story, Thunderball (1965).
- Vehicles featured included the Flying Saucer yacht (which translates as Disco Volante) and was known as the Nabila during filming and became the Kingdom 5KR and now Trump Princess; a black 1937 Bentley 4 1/4 litre B129JY Gurney Nutting 3-Position-Drophead Coupé ; Fatima’s gold metallic Mercedes-Benz SL convertible and red 1983 Renault Turbo 2; Q-shop’s black Yamaha XJ 650 Turbo motorbike ridden by Bond; a black Chevrolet Camaro SS; US Navy submarine and XT-7B helicopter; Rockwell B-1A Lancer ; Ford Taunus; Peugeot and a rubber dinghy.
- Richard Donner was offered the job of directing the film but turned it down according to the book “The Films Of Sean Connery” by Philip Lisa and Lee Pfeiffer.
- Besides Sean Connery, only one other performer was involved in both this film and the original Thunderball (1965): Robert Rietty (Italian Minister) voiced the character of Largo in the original.
- A young Steven Seagal was the martial arts instructor for this film.
- This “Bond film” was not part of the franchise produced by MGM and Danjaq. Kevin McClory, who was producer and co-writer of Thunderball (1965), won a legal battle against Ian Fleming to make his own Bond film. The settlement stipulated that it had to effectively be a remake of Thunderball.
- First ever James Bond film made without a title originally written by Ian Fleming.
- A stunt involving a horse jumping off a cliff caused controversy among animal rights activists. As a result, it became standard practice for films to include a disclaimer (when applicable) indicating that animals were not mistreated during production.
- The title is (allegedly) based on a conversation between Sean Connery and his wife. After Diamonds Are Forever (1971) he told her he’d *never* play James Bond again, and there he was, playing James Bond again. Her response was for him to “never say never again”.
- John Barry was invited to do the music for this film but he politely declined out of respect for Albert R. Broccoli and his association with EON production.
- The casino where Bond and Largo square off in a videogame battle is named Casino Royale.
- When the project was first announced, the title was “James Bond of the Secret Service” and Orson Welles was going to play a villain.
- The “I need a urine sample. If you could fill this beaker for me?”, “From here?” joke during the medical check-up was inserted by screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais as an homage to the “Porridge” (1974) television series, which they also wrote, where the punch line was delivered by Ronnie Barker.
- Steven Seagal broke Sean Connery’s wrist while showing him how to perform a martial arts move.
- This Warner Brothers film was intended to go head-to-head with the official Eon Bond series film Octopussy (1983) at the box office. Never Say Never Again was released just 4 months after Octopussy. Because the films starred Roger Moore and Sean Connery, each equally recognized to the film going public as James Bond at the time, much of the talk in the press was of a “Bond vs. Bond” showdown at the box office. Most industry analysts predicted that Never Say Never Again would win out at the box office due to the return of Connery, more press, and a significantly larger production budget than Octopussy. According to a press release from Variety in 1985 this was not the case. Variety quoted figures from MGM and Warner Brothers that listed Octopussy’s US gross at $67.9 million and Never Say Never Again’s US gross at $55.4 million. It also listed Octopussy’s worldwide gross at $187.5 million, and Never Say Never Again’s worldwide gross at $160 million. The article also stated that according to the studios, Octopussy had $34.031 million in US rentals, while Never Say Never Again had $28.2 million in US rentals. When the final results were in Never Say Never Again and Sean Connery ended up losing the much discussed “Bond vs. Bond” showdown.
- Marsha A. Hunt’s role as one of Blofield’s aides was cut out of the film.
- Max von Sydow’s supporting role became a bit part when only a handful of his scenes made it in the finished film.
- MGM bought complete ownership of the film in December of 1997 from Taliafilm Inc. for $15 million.
- During the closing credits, there’s a “Thanks A.K.” listed. This refers to Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer who allowed them to film aboard his 282 yacht, the “Nabila”. He later sold this yacht to Donald Trump, who renamed it the “Trump Princess”. It is currently owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.
- At the end, Bond winks at the camera. Not counting the parody Casino Royale (1967), the only other Bond film in which 007 breaks the “fourth wall” is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), though in that instance the character could be said to be just talking to himself.
- Barbara Carrera (Fatima Blush) did her love scenes with Sean Connery herself, declining the offer to use a body double.
- In the early 1990s, producer Jack Schwartzman was supposedly planning a special edition laserdisc, with an all-new expanded cut of the film. There was also talk of having the film re-scored. To date, this has not come to fruition in any form.
- Producer Jack Schwartzman wanted then up-and-coming composer James Horner to score the film. Sean Connery objected and Michel Legrand was brought in after accidentally meeting Sean Connery in a studio corridor.
- Rowan Atkinson’s first film.
- The number of the Paris Bank safe deposit box that Fatima Blush accesses was 274.
- Reportedly, Francis Ford Coppola made script contributions to the film. The film’s producer Jack Schwartzman was the husband of The Godfather (1972) star Talia Shire. The film’s credits state that Shire acted as a Consultant to the Producer. She is also Francis Ford Coppola’s sister.
- James Bond’s hotel room in Nassau in the Bahamas is Room 623 while his date’s is Room 728.
- SPECTRE stood for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
- The original/working title for the film was “James Bond of the Secret Service” but in a London court case between Eon Productions and Kevin McClory, the court ruled that this title could not be used as it was too similar to the title for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
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- Entry created: December 28, 2006; 11:51; Last modified: December 28, 2006; 11:51
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