Bond in Orbit

By Robert Martin

In Moonraker, James Bond - the only superhero with a Licence To Kill - seeks his prey in London, Capri, Venice, Rio . .. and Outer Space.

Though based on novels written in the late 50s and early 60s, each of the film adventures of super-agent James Bond have taken special care to include the latest of technological marvels. But the scientific gimmickry - whether lasers, jetpacks, hovercraft or the newest and hottest in a long string of wonder cars - has remained a supporting element to the heroic action in each film. For Moonraker, the Bond epic scheduled to premiere this July 4th, space-age science is the action, as Agent 007 is pitted against a megalomaniac multi-billionaire with a

personally financed space program that is part of yet another rule-the-world scheme.

Written 25 years ago, predating Sputnik and the space race era by three years, Ian Fleming's original novel concerns Sir Hugo Drax and his fiendish plan to send a nuclear missile hurtling into the ceruer of downtown London. For the film version, it was decided to abandon the original storyline. Only Drax, the sinister space pioneer, and his voluptuous associate, Miss Holly Goodhead, are retained. In a far more ambitious plot, concocted by screenwriter Christopher Wood, Drax plans the demise of Earth's entire population.

In order to authentically create Drax's two space centers (one concealed in the bowels of a lost city in the Central American jungle, the other suspended in Earth orbit), producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert have recruited two NASA experts, Eric Burgess and Harry Lang, to work closely with production designer Ken Adam. Adam's stunning sets featured prominently in the two previous Gilbert-directed Bond films, particularly the mammoth submarine plant in The Spy Who Loved Me-built in the giant "007" soundstage at Pinewood Studios in England.

The final segment of the film, in which a space-borne Bond meets his foe in a final cataclysmic encounter, promises a wealth of stunning special-effects work. The effects are being supervised by Derek Meddings, who worked in a similar capacity on Superman-The Movie. Though principal photography was completed in France last January, Meddings and a crew of 100 are continuing the miniature and matte work at Pinewood and Shepperton studios. Miniatures include a scaled reproduction of the planned NASA space shuttle, re-christened the Moonraker, and the orbiting headquarters from which Drax will set his plan of world conquest in motion.

Albert Broccoli, who has been producing the Bond films since the very first appeared in 1962, states that "the premise of Moonraker is not science fiction, it's science fact." It is true that the technology behind most of the fantastic events planned for the film does exist today. But the spectacular dimension of those events, and the skilled work of Meddings and crew, make the film required viewing this summer for millions of space opera fans, and perhaps may bring a new sense of wonder to Bond followers around the globe.

source: Starlog #22, May 1979

Naomie Harris

THE BADDEST BOND CHICK AROUND

Move over, Octopussy. There's a new Bond girl — er, woman — in town.

Naomie Harris, of Pirates of the Carribbean and 28 Days Later fame, is the newest lady in waiting for Agent 007 in this fall's hotly anticipated Skyfall. Starring opposite Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem, it's a once-in-a-lifetime role for the British stunner.

Luckily for her, Harris is a bit more than the typical Bond girl sex object. This chick whups major ass as field agent Eve, working in tandem with the world's most famous spy.

"I think the role of the Bond woman has changed so much over the years that it now doesn't follow a typical archetypical view," says Harris, via phone from South Africa, where she is starring as Winnie Mandela in a biopic. "Before, it was very much a beautiful woman who didn't contribute much and who usually ended up getting killed or was arm candy for Bond. But now the women in a Bond movie have so much more to offer. I don't know whether the title "Bond girl" is relevant anymore, but I'm happy to go with the role."

Harris agreed to the role without even reading the script and was happily surprised to learn that her character was well developed. Then the training started: two hours a day and nine months of running and shooting and combat training so she could hold her own with the boys.

"For someone who never ever exercises, it was a huge challenge and a lot to take on," she says. "It's the most physical role I've ever done."

It's also, frankly, fun to be a Black Brit starring in a British staple.

"I grew up with the Bond movies, and they're really part of British culture. I love the way I'm representing modern British Black women in this movie. That for me is a real sign of how much society has advanced and become much more multicultural."

Speaking of which, she does get personal with pretty boy Craig. Harris won't dish on the details of what looks to be a kiss and perhaps something more in the movie, but she does admit that no woman can resist 007's—or Craig's—charms.

"I think Daniel is the ultimate Bond for me because he brings a whole new dimension to it," says the actor. "And my character, Eve, is very ambitious and thrilled to be working alongside him. ... [Of course,] any woman who gets close to 007 ends up falling for his charms."

Source: Ebony, Nov2012, Vol. 67 Issue 1, p32-32

EMILY BOLTON - FROM BACH TO BOND

Former classical pianist strikes chord in Moonraker

Sensuous Emily Bolton has been certified as "licensed to thrill" since her role as Manuela, a romantic accomplice lo Roger Moore (above, right) in the James Rond thriller Moonraker. A former model. Emily has appeared in the film Valentino and regularly on British TV since shedding a budding career as a concert pianist. The Aruba-born actress, who speaks four languages, lives in London where she is in line for a lead part in a comedy thriller to be filmed in Europe, plus two other films being made in Hollywood.

THE bio sheet on Emily Bolton, a 28-year-old Caribbean beauty who plays a romantic accomplice to Agent 007 in the latest James Bond thriller, Moonraker, says she is "licensed to thrill." A more appropriate description would have been difficult to find. Perfectly chiseled features, delicate charm and an elegant figure quickly explain why But aside from the "built-ins," the dusky-eyed Emily has a sackful of academic credentials—like four languages—and a myriad of talents cultivated by her fashion designer mother and accountant father that make her one of the hottest newcomers in film.

At first, however, after her parents started her on the road toward becoming a concert pianist at age six upon leaving their native island of Aruba off the coast of Venezuela, it seemed that the closest she’d ever come to the screen was at the local movie house.

But much to the horror of Emily’s Dutch tutors, who firmly envisioned her seated behind a grand piano, "itchy-footed" Emily switched directions at 18 and decided to pursue an acting career, taking private classes in acting, singing and dancing in Amsterdam and London while working as a part-time fashion model and appearing in television commercials. The results: numerous appearances on British TV, a 1976 screen debut dancing with ballet star Rudolph Nureyev in Valentino and now Moonraker. Already in line for a lead part in a comedy thriller to be filmed in Europe, Emily continues to move up. It appears the music world's loss is the film industry's gain. Sorry about that Chopin.

Source:    Ebony, Nov1979, Vol. 35 Issue 1, p58-59

TRINA PARKS: THE GIRL WHO ZAPS JAMES BOND

Trina grew up in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant ghetto (her mother died years ago; her father. Chuck Frazier, is a musician who played saxophone and flute with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington) and made her professional debut in 1964 as a dancer with the Katherine Dunham Kevue. She followed the Broadway and off-Broadway theater route while working up a nightclub act as a singer.

She was in Las Vegas singing in the Flamingo Hotel Lounge when she heard that the Diamonds crew was in town looking for a girl to do a wild scene with actor Sean Connery. "I didn't know what kind of 'wild scene' they were talking about," Trina laughs, "but I decided to go over and check it out anyway." She got the part—one which teams her with stunt actress Donna Carratt as bodyguards of a recluse millionaire. In a spectacular scene, the girls employ some well-placed kicks and blows to pummel Bond from the living room to the swimming pool of the millionaire’s home. To film the scene, Trina was given a two-week leave of absence from the Flamingo Lounge. "James Rond only comes into a girl's life once—if she's lucky, so I just had to have that leave," she says. Rehearsal and filming of her fight sequence was not unlike a dance performance. "Just about everything was choreographed in detail by stunt producer Paul Baxley," Trina says.

"And I hope." she says, "that the industry doesn't start typing me

as that kind of actress . . . you know, the superphysical type with not many lines to say. I’m interested in being an actress, not a stunt girl."

If she accomplishes that, Trina would be a "triple threat" — actress, dancer and singer. "Wonder if I can make it really big in all three fields . . . big hit records, good film roles, top club dates, even concerts?" asks Trina with all the bubbliness of a little girl who's just been handed three super-swell toys.

Diamonds is Trina’s fifth movie following earlier small roles in The Great White Hope, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Night Gallery and Deux Anges Sont Venus, a film she made in Paris while on tour with the Dunham troupe. Her theater work has included roles in Emperor Jones, House of Flowers, Her First Roman and The Prodigal Son. She also has appeared on a number of TV programs, including The Dean Martin Show, Hollywood Palace and the Dionne Warwicke Special.

Two forthcoming black-oriented films may provide important showcases for Trina’s talent as an actress. They are the sequels to Shaft and Cotton Comes to Harlem, both of which are being filmed in New York. Trina has talked with Shaft director Gordon Parks and with Cotton star Raymond St. Jacques and she says, "I asked them to consider only one thing—that I be given a chance to show that I'm not a deaf-mute . . . that I can handle a major speaking role." St. Jacques also is considering Trina for a role in The Book of Numbers, a film he will produce and direct and in which he will star.

It seems that Trina Parks is on her way.

(Photo) Trina Parks, who plays "Thumper," a bikini-clad bodyguard of a multi-millionaire recluse, in latest James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, perches on rock in employer’s home, observes actions of Sean Connery as Agent 007.

(Photo) Bond is ever the gallant as he helps "Thumper" from her perch, but learns too late why girl has been given unusual name as he recoils (right) from her sudden attack. Trina is a dancer and singer who took leave of absence from show in Las Vegas hotel lounge for filming of role.

(Photo) "Thumper" is joined by another bodyguard, “Bambi" (Donna Garratt), for assault during which Bond is given one of worst beatings of his career. Below. he picks himself off floor to ward off new assault.

(Photo) Temporarily beaten, Bond heads for a cooling-off in swimming pool of girls’ employer’s home. But the unconquerable 007 makes comeback when girls dive into pool after him to finish their job, yet instead fall prey to agents savvy.

(Photo) TRINA Parks finishes a dance rehearsal, eases off her slippers and lets her willowy five-foot-eight body sort of melt into a position of relaxation. Wow! She sure doesn't look now like "Thumper." that kicking, karate-chopping bodyguard who helps give Agent 007 such an awful beating in the new James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever.

(Photo) In concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, Trina (l.) dances with Claudine Howard and Loretta Abbott in Sights and Sounds show. Choreographed hy Morton Winston, show also featured dancers Al Perryman, Otis Salid.

(Photo) During performance, Trina dances solo (r.) then with partner Otis Salid (below). She grew up in Brooklyn, studied dance at Brooklyn Academy of Music and at Carnegie Hall. She says fight sequence in Bond film called for movements "very much like those one uses in dance." Trina also had a part in film The Great White Hope.

(Photo) The performance ended, Tiina takes bows with other members of company. A few days later, she left for dance concerts in Bahamas. Trina has appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway shows, is now interested in developing her career in movies.

(Photo) In New York, a begoggled Trina waits for subway train. Below, she stops by apartment of actor Raymond St. Jacques to discuss possible role in sequel to film Cotton Comes to Harlem which St. Jacques was filming in Manhattan. With them is St, Jacques' son. Sterling.

(Photo) In her N. Y. apartment,

(Photo) Trina prepares tea for herself and her boyfriend, actor-model Charles Elder. They live in Los Angeles but come to New York often to work. Below, Trina, who has broken her shoe heel enroute to rehearsal, stops in shop for repair.

Source:     Ebony, Mar1972, Vol. 27 Issue 5, p68-74

John Richardson

article by Nora Lee.

His name is Richardson — John Richardson.

His dossier, stolen from an unnamed studio executive, reveals that in recent years he has had a very close relationship with British Secret Service Agent James Bond. In fact it is now known that it was Richardson who engineered Bond's escape by hang glider from his doomed speedboat when it plunged over a two-hundred-foot South American waterfall during the Moonraker caper. Richardson was also reportedly on scene in Latin America when Bond unloaded his jet plane from a horse trailer, took off and played hide-and-seek with a surface-to-air missile in the Octopussy affair. Bond managed to escape being blown to smithereens inside an airplane hangar only because Richardson stepped in with a uniquely configured Jaguar and saved the day. And without Richardson's assistance on A View To A Kill, Bond would never have been able to pursue the assassin May Day as she parachuted from the Eiffel Tower. Richardson himself helped choose the taxi, knowing that even if it should get cut in half or the top should be sliced off it could still be driven — as long as it was not put in reverse!

Now, on Bond's latest undertaking The Living Daylights, Richardson has been positively identified as the mastermind behind 007's narrow escape from the belly of a Russian transport aircraft. Who else could have rigged a parachute to an on-board jeep in such a way that the agent and his lady did not plunge to a fiery death, but instead landed with a soft thud moments before the plane exploded?

Richardson is often armed, but prides himself on not being dangerous. However, caution is advised— he enjoys blowing things up.

Tor twenty-five years, James Bond has been saving the world from evil plots of every kind. But since 1979, special effects supervisor John Richardson has been saving Bond. Richardson represents the second generation of special effects artists in his family. His father. Cliff Richardson, pioneered cinematic special effects in England beginning in 1921. One of his first jobs was on the Stoll Picture Company's 'Grand Guignol' series of two-reel silent pictures based on the famous French horror plays. In the early Thirties, the elder Richardson worked with Alfred Hitchcock at Elstree Studios and eventually took over the effects department at Ealing Studios. "As far back as I can remember," Richardson recalled, "Dad was making snow in the backyard and giant frogs and airplanes and things like that. Every day he used to come home from work and tell me what he'd done. He'd bring little figures home — little Humphrey Bogarts from The African Queen. I can remember it all very clearly. I sort of had it in the blood before I ever got to secondary school — wanting eagerly to be a special effects man."

Richardson got his first chance in 1960. He was fourteen at the time and his father was going to Israel to work on Exodus for Otto Preminger. "I got a leave of absence from school and went out to Israel with my mother. After you've seen the sights.

here isn't a lot to do for a fourteen-year-old; so I got a job on the unit." Exodus was only the first of many features for father and son. As Richardson's apprenticeship continued, he found work on such films as The Victors, The 7th Dawn, Lord Jim, Judith, Casino Royale (1967) and The Dirty Dozen, In 1968, Richardson landed his first solo project — Duffy. But collaboration between father and son continued with Richardson senior handling one unit and Richardson junior another, and together they worked on such films as The Adventurers, Battle of Britain and Young Winston. Then John Richardson went on his own fulltime and in a number of remarkable pictures. His solo performances include orchestrating the tremendous battle scenes in A Bridge Too Far, as well as rigging a variety of effects for The Omen, Superman, Raise the Titanic, The Great Gatsby— and most recently Aliens, for which he won an Academy Award. "John is a very dour character," quipped John Glen, director of the last four Bond films, "but he comes up with some lovely ideas." Glen should know. He was second unit director and editor on Moonraker— Richardson's first 007 encounter — and is responsible for Richardson's continued appearances. In the credits on Moonraker, Richardson is listed as one of five effects artisans and was basically in charge of the location shooting in South America and Florida.

Midway through the storyline, James Bond (Roger Moore) has tracked the evil Drax (Michael Lonsdale) to his jungle headquarters; but to breach the inner sanctum, Bond must first navigate his boat through treacherous waters and expendable flunkies. Thank goodness the boat has been outfitted by the ingenious Q (Desmond Llewelyn), because in the process of evading his pursuers, Bond manages to get himself chased over a waterfall. Even though the film was shot eight years ago, Richardson remembers very clearly the events that took place at the Iguazu Falls in Brazil — most recently seen in The Mission. i'd been out there on a location scout about a month before we went to shoot. I felt then that the chances of actually getting a boat over the falls were fairly remote because there were many rocks just below the surface of the water. The water was flowing very fast at that point, and the boats would almost certainly impale themselves —which was in fact exactly what happened. But I said we would give it our best shot and so five of us ended up out in the river — twenty feet from the edge of a two-hundred-foot drop — literally roped together, trying to manhandle a very heavy Glastron speedboat down just to the lip of the falls where we could release it and launch it over the top. What can I say? We didn't actually achieve it. We got the boat down there, but in the end it got jammed on a rock right at the edge and we couldn't shift it. I ended up being winched down onto the boat from a helicopter to try and physically shift the boat off the rock. By now, we were just trying to get rid of it because it was in the way for all the plates that we had to shoot. Anyway, this helicopter dropped me in the water and it dropped me in the bushes — dropped me everywhere but in the boat. The idea was that I could get hold of the boat, the helicopter would fly up and away and I would act as the link so the boat could be dragged clear of the rock. As soon as the boat was clear, it would go over the edge and I could just let go." Even when Richardson made contact with the boat, however, there was a problem in that the craft weighed over a ton. It was only a dummy; but since the original idea had been to employ an air cannon to propel it over the falls, this particular dummy had a steel shaft built inside it. When plans changed and the heavy tube was no longer needed, there was neither the time nor the wherewithal to remove it.

I checked all the lines and the hooks from the helicopter and the harness that I was wearing before we took off. Once I got hold of the boat and the helicopter started to fly up and away there was no way I was going to let go of the boat! I'd got it, and I was so hyped up by this time to get rid of the bloody thing that I was determined not to let go. So the helicopter is pulling and my arms are getting longer and longer by the second, and suddenly I hear this ping, ping, ping, ping, ping... I thought. What on earth is that?' I could hear it quite loudly over the noise of the helicopter, and I suddenly realized it was the stitching on the harness 1 was wearing — breaking. So I let go. It seemed like the sensible thing to do at the time. So we went through all that and tried several other things unsuccessfully, and finally we went back to the hotel fairly dejected. That night it rained somewhere two hundred miles upstream, and during the night the water came down and washed the boat over. Solved our problem for us." Eventually the shot was achieved, but not as originally planned. Back at Pinewood Studios — home base for the Bond films — the effect was produced with miniatures by visual effects supervisor Derek Meddings.

After filming the end of the chase in Brazil, the effects crew moved to Port St. Lucy, a small town in the Florida Everglades, to choreograph the preceding portion of the chase in which Bond's speedboat is pursued by three others — one manned by the implacable Jaws (Richard Kiel). The sequence involved a lot of explosions, bullet hits and the deployment of Q's singular defensive systems. Among other things, Richardson built a radio-controlled, self-propelled torpedo, which —guided by one of his crew — could be fired from Bond's boat and made to pursue the bad guys chasing close behind. The speedboat was also equipped with mines that could be released in its wake, and it was here in Florida that the top portion of the cabin was transformed into a functional hang glider so that Bond could escape as his boat plummeted over the falls.

Photo: Appropriately enough, special effects supervisor John Richardson poses on a set full of high explosives constructed for the James Bond thriller, A View To A Kill. Richardson — a second generation effects artist — has overseen physical effects and miniatures on four of the last five Bond pictures. / His first 007 assignment — on Moonraker— was to supervise a speedboat chase which culminated with Bond escaping via hang glider only moments before his craft was swept over a giant waterfall. / Early segments of the chase were filmed in the Florida Everglades and entailed the rigging of underwater explosives carefully timed to the passage of the various boats. / The climax to the sequence — shot on location at the Iguazu Falls in Brazil — did not go according to plan. When the speedboat became snagged at the edge of the two-hundred-foot precipice, Richardson attempted to dislodge it manually by suspending himself from a hovering helicopter.

"All of the pyrotechnic work was, to say the least, a little tricky," Richardson recalled. "Explosions in water are always one of the most dangerous situations for us. We have to be very careful in order to avoid accidents because charges can drift and boats don't necessarily follow the right line. We had to make sure that the boats were as close as they could be to the explosions, but not too close. When the boats were going fifty miles an hour, the timing of letting off the explosions near them raised a few problems. You can only do that sort of thing by eye. We always had to be in a firing position so that we could watch the boats coming. We managed to get pretty damn close at times — the Glastron was jumping up on the water spouts created by the explosions."

Two of the chase craft are eventually blown up, and for those shots the boats were towed past camera on a special mount Richardson had built to hold each speedboat nose-up in a planing position. That way it looked as if they were moving along at high speed. Richardson insists that the secret to a successful explosion is to produce not one big blast but a series of small ones that accomplish a variety of things. ' We had different charges. Some were inside the boat and some were fixed about four feet underneath so that when they went off they would actually lift the boat out of the water. We also had self-timed charges in the boat so that on one we got it about fifty feet in the air. First there was an enormous waterspout with the boat in the middle of it, and then a fireball fifty feet off the water when the boat itself blew up."

On one of the boat chase explosions, Richardson was able to break what looks like a single blast up into three distinct parts. The first explosion occurs in a very close shot and two crew members fly out. One of them was Richardson — who, despite being a supervisor, does seem to get rather personally involved in his work. "We had an air ram in the back of the boat, so when the first explosion went off you saw two bodies flung out and into the water. It s always nice to see real people flying out of an explosion like that. It was a small controlled explosion, and it wasn't really that dangerous. The dangerous thing was the crocodiles in the water. It was a case of hearing somebody say Cut!' and then getting up and running on top of the water back to the boat as fast as you could! The way the scene is cut together, you see the start of the explosion and the bodies come flying out in the close shot. Then we cut back to a wider shot and see the boat blow up. Next there is a reaction shot of Bond, and then we go back to the boat which is now upside-down and blows up again."

Effects such as these are difficult and expensive to do more than once; so to insure adequate coverage, the effects unit generally employs multiple cameras. "Most of the work we do involves two cameras, but there are times when I have to beg, borrow or steal every camera I can get my hands on and have everyone who is capable of pointing one covering the scene. If you can muster three or four — especially on the big set pieces — you'll be okay." As complex as the boat chase was, Richardson's work required only a week of shooting in Iguazu and another three or four in Florida.

Photo: The precredit sequence to Octopussy culminated with Bond piloting a minijet through an open hangar in an attempt to elude a surface-to-air missile hot on his trail. Since the stunt was considered too problematic to perform live, the sliding hangar door was reproduced as a third-scale foreground miniature and positioned directly behind the machinegun emplacement Like scale models of the plane and missile were then mounted on wires and flown between the foreground miniature and the actual hangar to create the impression that they passed inside. /For a subsequent shot in which the missile detonates within the hangar, a tenth-scale miniature of the structure and its surroundings was rigged with pyrotechnics and photographed at high-speed. / Scenes of the minijet within the hangar were achieved by affixing the full-size plane to a gimbal mount attached to a Jaguar driven by Richardson. /In a banked position, the minijet wings concealed the support pole and foreground props obscured the automobile. / Forced perspective miniatures were also employed for a more distant shot of the plane's exit from the hangar.

Richardson was not involved in the next Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, when John Glen made his directorial debut. But on Glen's second outing, Octopussy. Richardson was back at it — this time as visual effects supervisor. Octopussy is full of effects flourishes, the most memorable being the centerpiece of the series' trademark precredit sequence. Captured while on a sabotage mission at an unspecified Latin American air base. Bond manages to escape via a collapsible minijet housed in a bogus horse trailer. As soon as Bond is airborne, the military launches a surface-to-air missile which 007 manages to elude long enough to draw it into a hangar. Moments after he flies in one hangar door and out the other, the missile impacts within, reducing the structure to rubble.

Photo: Also in Octopussy, Bond appropriates a Mercedes sedan and— after blowing out all four tires — maneuvers it onto some railroad tracks in pursuit of a train carrying an armed nuclear warhead. Richardson coaches actor Roger Moore on driving the specially appointed vehicle which had a slightly altered wheel base enabling it to fit onto the tracks. / For a scene requiring the Mercedes to be struck by an oncoming train, the illusion was created by pre-smashing the car and then mounting it on an air cannon positioned on the far side of the railroad bridge. With precise timing critical, the Mercedes was fired across the tracks just moments before the train passed — creating the impression, with clever cross-cutting, that the vehicle had actually been knocked aside by the locomotive.

The basic idea had first been devised for Moonraker, but had been shelved — one of the few times anyone could recall a Bond sequence being abandoned because no one could figure out how to do it. "Since Moonraker, that scene was always in the back of our minds," said John Glen. "We loved the idea of Q with the horse trailer —which is how it was originally conceived. We kept playing around with it, and on Octopussy we got it out and actually wrote a scene to incorporate the jet and the horsebox. It was completely different from the original concept. John came up with a brilliant idea when the jet was being chased by the Exocet missile, for shots of the missile following the jet, we toyed with all kinds of things, but finished up by just using a model airplane and towing a miniature missile with a flare inside which made a smoke trail." The third-scale, radio-controlled plane was in fact an exact replica of the real minijet — except that it had a propeller, which of course the original did not. By employing a low-pitch, high-rewing motor, however, the inconsistency was undetectable on film.

In reality, the complex sequence was comprised of a series of shots involving live stunts with an actual minijet, radio-controlled models of the jet, cleverly integrated foreground miniatures and a specially outfitted Jaguar. Obviously, one of the biggest challenges was flying the plane through the hangar full of people. ' Our stunt pilot offered to actually fly the plane through," Richardson explained, "but there were several problems with that. One, he couldn't have anybody in or around the hangar at the time —which is no good at all filmically. And second, it meant that at the speed the aircraft would have to be flying, it would be through the hangar in about a second. So we did the plane going into the hangar with a foreground miniature. The hangar door was built in miniature and placed a third of the distance between the camera and the real hangar. Then we flew the model plane from off-screen in behind the door and out so that it looked as though it were coming through the gap. It was sort of an upside-down hanging miniature. For its exit on the other side, we did exactly the same thing.

"We got the full-scale plane through the hangar by cutting the top off an old Jag and mounting the plane on a support pole that came out of the top. The pole was painted to camouflage with the background as much as possible; and when the car entered the hangar, we used something in the foreground to conceal the car and pole. Also the plane was on a hydraulic gimbal so that it could bank as it went through —and when it did so, the pole was concealed by the wing. During the shot, I would drive through the hangar at about sixty to seventy miles per hour, with all the stunt guys scattering in front of me. We had people actually closing the door at the far end, and one of
my guys was sitting in the back of the car working the movement of the aircraft. As we approached the far end, he was able to bank the airplane, which caused the wing to come down and hide the pole arm and also allowed us just enough room to squeeze through the doors. We did several takes, and it all worked fine except on one occasion when I got through the doors and took my foot off the throttle and nothing happened. The car just kept going at seventy miles an hour — the throttle had jammed. It took me a beat to realize what had happened and by that time we had missed a sharp turn and taken to the grass, pirouetting towards an old plane sitting out there in a field. Once I realized what had happened, though, I was able to switch the engine off and we were all right."

For the shot in which the hangar explodes, Richardson and model unit art director Michael Lamont constructed a tenth-scale miniature of the structure and its surrounding area, loaded it with pyrotechnics and shot it at high-speed. But the explosion actually began on the 007 stage in full scale. Richardson brought in a full-size missile and flew it down a wire into a plane on the set, causing a fiery explosion that segued neatly into the exploding five-foot-tall miniature.

Like Moonraker and its other predecessors, Octopussy has an impressive chase sequence. Attempting to halt a train carrying an armed nuclear warhead, Bond steals a Mercedes sedan, blows out all four tires, maneuvers the bare-wheeled vehicle onto some parallel railroad tracks and gives pursuit — only to be met head-on by a train going in the opposite direction. Richardson again added a personal touch to the work by test-driving the specially appointed vehicle — which had a slightly altered wheel base enabling it to fit onto the tracks —and acting as stunt driver during parts of the sequence. "Roger Moore drove the Mercedes down the railroad track at one time," Richardson allowed, "but the stuntman and I actually did quite a lot of the driving. In fact, I used to drive the Mercedes whenever I could because that meant I could watch the track for tricky areas and get one of the boys to lean on the right wing of the car to make sure we went the correct way. We had to be very careful, because if we were going over points in the track — which are junctions where the train can turn off onto another line — we had to weld little brackets over them to stop the car from derailing. If we didn't weld them up, the car would get to the points and one wheel would go one direction and the other wheel another and I'd be left somewhere in the middle. At seventy or eighty miles per hour, that could pose a real problem. Although we made our wheels similar to railway train wheels, the real ones are much bigger and thicker and rarely derail."

The actual confrontation with the oncoming train was as much an optical illusion as anything. "When the Mercedes was supposedly hit by the train," Richardson explained, "it was actually fired out over the water with an air cannon. The tricky thing was timing the car, because we had to fire it from the other side of the track so that it came across in front of the train and looked like it was being hit. Once we managed to get it so close that as it flew across and the train came on through, the front wing of the car just clipped the front of the express. In another cut, we fired the car towards a boat on the lake and we had two stunt guys who leapt out of the boat just before the car hit the water."

Richardson is the first to admit that sometimes it is the little fiddly things' that take the most time and attention. In Octopussy, for example, while Bond dallies with smuggling entrepreneur Octopussy (Maud Adams) in her island palace, one of the villains tries to disrupt their tryst with a saw blade-equipped yoyo. It was a very treacherous-looking weapon and a nightmare to construct. "We actually built a yoyo with a circular saw blade on it. Then we had to build a variety of them — one that the actor could safely use and one that would actually cut through a desk and others that were backups. It was very much a trial-and-error thing. When you get a script and it has something like that in it, it's usually no good having somebody give you a design and say, Build that.' You can't necessarily make it work, normally I first get the boys to build something that works — then we worry about making it look right. We use that approach in a lot of our gags."

Richardson's next Bond outing, A View To A Kill, contained some truly spectacular effects work. In one sequence, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) sets into motion a plot to corner the world microchip market by flooding the entire Silicon Valley in northern California. He then takes off in his personal blimp to observe the debacle from above. James Bond foils the attempt, of course, and manages to grab onto the airship's mooring line as it drifts across San Francisco Bay and becomes entangled in the Golden Gate Bridge where Bond and Zorin battle to the death.

Photo: for his next Bond outing — A View To A Kill— Richardson was called upon to stage an enormous fire at the San Francisco City Hall. After covering the historic structure with fireproof board, corrugated iron and sand, the veteran pyrotechnician employed giant flares, smoke and gas burners to create what appeared to be a major conflagration. / A full-size mine set played a major role in the film — and at the end it had to be flooded. / The more catastrophic aspects of the flooding were created in miniature on a third-scale replica thirty feet by twenty feet by twelve feet high. /

For a car chase filmed on the streets of Paris, Richardson and his unit had to modify a Renault taxi so that its top and rear end could be sliced off and yet still have it drivable. / The perilous climax of the film featured a corporate blimp entangled on the Golden Gate Bridge and an ensuing battle between Bond and his adversaries atop the giant landmark. High above the bay, John Richardson studies the structure in preparation for location plate photography.

The composite sequence was an intricate mix of on-location stuntwork, live-action process shots, miniatures of the blimp and portions of the bridge, full-scale segments of the bridge and sections of the gondola. To complicate matters even more, parts of it were shot in San Francisco and parts of it at Pinewood. As special effects supervisor, Richardson was responsible for assembling all the pieces —and on occasion his duties expanded to include directing the effects unit. "I've directed the model units on three Bonds, plus occasionally they let me loose with real people as well. Arthur Wooster does almost all of the second unit work; but on A View To A Kill, for instance, I was given most of the shooting on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. We had a lot of Vistavision plates to do, and I shot all of those on the bridge. That entailed actually going up to the very top of the Golden Gate and climbing a hundred feet down the main cable and setting up a camera to get the right background. That was more than a little interesting. John Glen is an excellent director to work with, especially with regard to action sequences, because all of the effects scenes are very carefully storyboarded up front. That gives us the opportunity to work out the best ways of doing something and determining where the different techniques will slot in. Then we can be quite sure of getting the best of every world. When I was doing the plates for the Golden Gate Bridge, I could go through all the storyboards and And exactly what backgrounds were required. Instead of just sticking the camera up and shooting down, I actually went to the spot where the action was taking place, worked out the angle on the actors, then placed the camera and shot that background. We knew every time that we'd get exactly what we needed." Richardson was especially sensitive about getting the plates just right because he knew they would have to work in with his models and miniatures back at Pinewood. He likes miniatures, as did his father who pioneered their use in England. "I enjoy directing miniatures," Richardson dead-panned, "because it gives me my own unit and I can sort of get away on my own and get drunk with power."

On A View To A Kill there were three blimp models ranging from ten to forty feet in length. All of them were operated by radio-controlled motors. One version — used only for a shot of a disloyal follower being ejected from the gondola — was even constructed to be inflatable and actually float. Unfortunately, filling it with helium turned out to be unworkable. Not only was the gas extremely expensive, it tended to seep out of the large-scale prop and also made the ship rather difficult to control since even the slightest breeze would buffet it about. Consequently, Richardson ended up filling the blimp with air and suspending it from a crane. "It was an incredible model to build because it was inflatable," continued Richardson, if we tethered it to the ground, it tended to pull the envelope out of shape. If we hung it from a crane, that too tended to pull the envelope out of shape. So we had to construct the model exactly the same way that real airships are built. It had a little tubular hatch in the bottom that was hidden by the car and then we employed curtains — made from the same material as the outer ship — that extended from the top to the bottom on the inside to balance everything out and maintain the overall shape. Once the blimp was inflated, I got in it and coupled all these curtains top and bottom, which took the load off the envelope. I was fine when it was full of air; but when it was full of helium, I had to work in an aqualung —and that didn't do my claustrophobia any good at all."

Photo: Bond hangs suspended from a mooring cable on the Zorin blimp as the airship approaches the Golden Gate Bridge — a twenty-foot-tall construct of fiberglass and steel positioned in front of a photo cutout background of the San Francisco skyline. / Workers examine the miniature set prior to shooting. /Atop an extension ladder, John Richardson rigs wiring to control the ten-foot-long blimp suspended from above by a crane. / Closer shots employed a forty-foot-long version of the ship and a similarly enlarged section representing the very top of the bridge. Effects technician Ray Lovell steadies the crane-mounted airship with a guy wire at the rear while Richardson helps effects cameraman Leslie Dear and his crew photograph a shot of the mooring rope snapping taught as it catches on the bridge. / For scenes requiring live actors, a full-size segment of the bridge was used in conjunction with a mockup of the gondola and a partial section of the envelope.

The San Francisco shoot was an exceedingly tough one. By day, Richardson was filming plates from atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Then at night he was busy burning down the San Francisco City Hall. "There was about a four-day period when I didn't get any sleep at all — not until I got on a plane for home. It was the one time I crossed the Atlantic and managed to sleep the whole way." In the story, City Hall must bum because Zorin wants to dispose of a corrupt official he has been bribing plus any records of his company's activities that might expose his evil plot. "Originally when we started talking about the burning of City Hall in our office back in Pinewood, everybody assumed it would be a foreground model. I said, "Why not do it for real?' "Don't be ridiculous! They'll never let us set fire to City Hall.' "Well, I can do it if they'll let us.' So we flew out and met with the mayor and the city fire department and tried to convince them that I was intelligent and knew what I was doing. Ultimately, they seemed to accept that we could do what we said we could."

The City Hall conflagration was suggested mostly by the use of enormous flares which created the kind of incandescent light that normally comes from a large-scale fire. Richardson also used smoke and gas burners and covered the building's roof with fireproof board, corrugated iron and sand. The biggest problem was that the fire needed to be staged right above the chambers of the most prominent judges in San Francisco. Consequently the effects crew was not allowed to work during the day for fear that they might make noise and disturb the judges. "It was one of those situations where we hadn't enough time to get all ready, but somehow we managed to scrape through. When it came time to shoot, we lit up the building and put it out about twenty-five or thirty times over three nights. Once you're rigged, though, it's no big deal to do it again and again. All the fire engines in the scene were real San Francisco Fire Department engines manned with real crews. We just made sure that some of them were actually coupled up to real hydrants so they could really put the fire out if necessary. I'm happy to say they didn't need to, but they had to pretend to put it out and I was forever rushing around screaming: Don't put water on the fire! You'll put it out!

What Bond film would be complete without a chase car going to pieces? A View To A Kill was no disappointment. Early in the film. Bond is dining with a French detective in a restaurant at the Eiffel Tower. Before he can finish his wine, however, Bond's lunch guest is dead and 007 is off chasing the killer. The chase takes him up the tower, but the assassin eludes him by leaping off the top and parachuting onto a boat in the Seine. Mot to be outdone, Bond grabs an elevator on its way down, hijacks a taxi and starts out across Paris in hot pursuit. But before he and the taxi catch up, the vehicle leap-frogs over a bus, is turned into a convertible, cut in half and generally destroyed.

"For the car chase," said Richardson, "we worked very closely with Remy Julienne, the French stunt driver. I think he is the best there is and we've worked together on all the most recent Bond films. My crew normally does most of the building on the stunt cars and Remy drives them — so obviously, he needs total confidence in us. We had a lot of support from both him and Renault. It took about six different versions of the taxi to do that chase. I remember one situation where we were testing the car that drove along in half. We had skids on it in the rear and some flints along the back to give off sparks from underneath. For safety, there was a small petrol tank up under the bonnet. And it was fine. You could drive it along and all these sparks would come out the back. Then, after a rehearsal, the driver wanted to go back to the boat — but instead of taking a big curve, he reversed. Of course, all the sparks wound up under the hood and spread to the petrol tank and set the car alight — and it blew up! So we lost a car before we had even started. It was a lesson well learned. We didn't reverse after that."

To trigger the earthquake that will flood Silicon Valley, Zorin has planted tons of explosives in an abandoned mine shaft. Being a cautious and thoroughly rotten villain, he wants no witnesses to the devastation; so he floods the mine with his workers still inside and then gleefully turns a machine gun on the survivors. Though an enormous full-size mine set was constructed for the film by production designer Peter Lamont, Richardson realized it would be impossible to control the vast amounts of water necessary to flood and destroy the scene without the use of miniatures. He and Michael Lamont therefore directed the construction of a third-scale replica which occupied a space thirty feet by twenty feet by twelve feet high. Richardson also devised a means of inserting Walken and his cohort into the miniature via a mirror built into the set. In reality, the actors were standing in front of a full-scale background piece quite some distance from the miniature; but in the shot they appear to be on a ledge firing away as the set crumbles around them.

Through experience and inclination, Richardson has an unshakable faith in such old-fashioned' methods of doing effects. He believes that in-camera effects shots not only look better, but are infinitely less expensive than intricate opticals. His claims are beautifully supported in The Living Daylights. Pre-production on the latest Bond epic began over a year before its release — in May 1986. One of the most pressing concerns — and certainly one of the last to be resolved — was the selection of a new 007. Roger Moore had retired from the secret agent business; and after months of speculation and media attention, Welsh stage actor Timothy Dalton was announced as his replacement. The film was already four weeks into production. It was not the first time producer Albert R. Broccoli — Cubby to the Bond family —had had to replace the actor portraying Bond. Sean Connery was Broccoli's first 007 in the 1962 film. Dr. No. Though wary of being typecast, Connery continued on for four more films until Australian actor George Lazenby replaced him in On her Majesty 's Secret Service. When Lazenby failed to spark audience interest, Connery was enticed back into the role on Diamonds Are Forever. With the next adventure, Live And Let Die, 007 fans were introduced to Roger Moore, who redefined the role and stayed with it for a total of seven films.

Cubby Broccoli and John Glen took the latest changing-of-the-Bonds as an opportunity to also change the direction of the series. Together they decided to shift away from the outlandish adventures of the past decade and return to author Ian Fleming's idea of Bond — a kind of Bond not really seen since Dr. No and From Russia With Love. For John Richardson, once again serving as special effects supervisor. The Living Daylights meant toning down the fantastic and bringing the stunts and gadgets back into the realm of possibility —realism, inasmuch as a Bond film can be realistic.

Photo: Miniature pyrotechnics were employed for scenes of the blimp's destruction. / For the most recent Bond adventure — The Living Daylights— Richardson and his crew equipped a late model Aston Martin with a wide range of offensive and defensive systems, including self-studding tires and outrigger skis essential to maintaining maximum speed and maneuverability on icy surfaces. / When one of Bond's tires is shot out during a high-speed chase on a frozen lake, the resourceful secret agent uses his whirling wheel rim to slice a hole in the ice into which his pursuers fall. Though the chase was shot on location in the Austrian Alps, the sinking car was photographed at the studio and employed an outdoor tank equipped with a hydraulic rig for submerging the vehicle. The icy lake top was constructed from fiberglass and covered with marble dust snow. Real trees and a painted backdrop completed the illusion.

What's it like to be handed a Bond script? "Oh, it's nothing really," Richardson said, tongue in cheek. "You read it and then you go into a state of shock for about three days. Then you read it again and you think, Perhaps they're going to find me out on this one...' Then we all sit down and go over it It's very much a family atmosphere on the Bonds. We all know each other so well and we've worked closely together. Some of the guys, like production designer Peter Lamont, have been on thirteen or more Bond films. We get our heads down and talk about the story. We get ideas and change things. Everyone is always receptive to suggestions. Of course, I find myself trying to outdo myself — and everybody else! That's half the fun, and probably the part of the film I enjoy most. Pre-production is the opportunity one gets to be a little more creative, rather than just blowing things up. You can help write the script, if you like, in a small way. It helps the film. We all get our input and hopefully the film gets the best of everybody's work as a result."

One of the delights of the new Bond is the return of 007's Aston Martin, first introduced in Goldfinger. Using an updated Volante model, the ever-resourceful Q has outfitted this incarnation of Bond's faithful car with such handy devices as a windshield heads-up display for targeting weapons, guided missiles hidden behind fog lights, a jet engine booster rocket, self-studding tires for driving on ice, convertible outrigger skis for stability in snow, high-intensity laser hubcaps and the ubiquitous self-destruct mechanism.

Three real Aston Martins were employed, and a number of dummies were constructed to enable Richardson to make all the gags work. For a chase sequence in which Bond leads his Russian pursuers out onto a frozen lake, skis were made practical on one of the dummy cars so that they actually came out and folded down. Then other sets were fitted on the real cars so that they could be driven out on the ice. The same approach was used for the studded tire gag. One tire was rigged with studs that would pop out. Then the real cars were outfitted with standard studded tires. Richardson noted that the tires were a necessity for driving on the ice at speeds of up to eighty miles per hour. Without them and the skis, the vehicles would have had no traction. Remy Julienne and his stunt team were again enlisted to do the driving, and they got a workout. Besides a stunt on the lake which involved using the tireless rim on the Aston Martin to cut a huge hole in the ice, there was a earlier scene in which Bond uses his hubcap laser to sever a chase car's body from its chassis. "Building a car to come apart was a fairly difficult job, " Richardson noted, "because we had to have two people in it. We had to make a compact body shell for them to sit in; but when the car came apart, they still had to get past the wheels and over the chassis — I was worried about it, but I thought it cut in very well."

As is often the case, several different techniques were employed to suggest the actual cutting of the car. One was a pyrotechnic effect — burning away a thin lead sheet. Then for the very close-up shot, Richardson used an oxyacetylene torch burning through from the inside to give a slightly bluish effect. With the pyrotechnic device, the car was moving along the road in Austria. For the oxyacetylene gag, it was on a rolling road on the stage with an effects man inside operating the torch. The car was held together and towed for the shot, and at the right moment the two pieces were released. The laser beams were animated in postproduction.

Richardson is especially happy with one particular shot involving the Aston Martin. During the beginning of the same chase sequence, the Russians try to block his passage with a semi-trailer truck. Bond decides to use his on-board missile system to clear the road. "From inside the car, you see the two targets come together on the windscreen. Then we cut to a moving POV outside where we see two missiles fire toward the truck and blow up — all in one shot! It's so quick that only an aficionado would appreciate it. To do it, we had a camera tracking along the road and we had two wires running out for the missiles to fire along. We had the two missiles sitting on the wires, ready. We tracked the camera along at car height on an outrigged arm so that when the camera drew level with the ends of the wires, it was over the top of the wires and at the right height for the bumper of the car. With the camera still tracking forward, we fired the two missiles. They came out from under camera, went straight down the wires, hit the truck and then we blew the truck up on a visual cue." No opticals.

Photo: On location in Morocco — doubling as Afghanistan — Richardson and his crew employed massive amounts of dynamite and gasoline to effect a thundering ground battle between well-equipped Soviet troops and primitively-outfitted Afghan rebels. / During the conflict, Bond commandeers a Russian cargo plane and takes off just as a smaller craft is coming in for a landing. Since the full-size plane was an American-made C-130 Hercules made over with Russian markings, the model unit constructed several twelfth-scale replicas for use in the scene. From a low-angle camera emplacement dug into the ground, Richardson surveys his miniature setup prior to photography. /A radio-controlled Hercules soars above the desert floor. For maximum correlation between live-action and model photography, the miniature work was also executed on location in Morocco.

When the plot transports Bond and accomplice Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo) to a Russian military base in Afghanistan, the pair manage to escape with the help of some Afghan freedom-fighters only to discover they must return to complete their mission. Richardson helped stage the resultant battle between the primitively-equipped Afghan rebels on horseback and their superiorly-armed Russian counterparts. Pyrotechnics were the order of the day. Tor the main battle sequences filmed in Morocco at Ouarzazate, I tried to insure that we maintained a constant overall atmosphere of smoke and dust as I always feel that that helps enormously in this type of sequence. To achieve that effect, we employed four Dante fire machines that I developed with my father some years ago. These machines use kerosene or a similar burning oil and will give a flame effect up to fifty feet high with a column of black smoke which under the right conditions will rise to a thousand feet or more. To produce even more smoke, we burned a lot of old car tires and used smoke pots. The explosions we tried to vary as much as possible. For the large ground explosions we used high explosive — a locally purchased dynamite which we dug into holes in the ground and covered with dust, felt and cork. In conjunction with these we used an effects charge which was invariably either napthalene-based or a straight flash charge. For the smaller ground explosions, or for more controlled ones near stuntmen or artists, we used either steel kicker plates with a multiple ring of primacord or a steel mortar pot which could be dug into the ground or sandbagged and directed where required. Por the fiery explosions we used gasoline in mortar pots with a heavily tamped black powder charge or in forty-five-gallon drums with a high explosive lifting charge. On some occasions we also used five-gallon plastic drums wrapped with primacord. In all cases, we employed a separate igniting charge which was normally napthalene-based. For one particular explosion, we managed to lire a sheet of flame horizontally along the ground for about one hundred feet by using a forty-five gallon drum of gasoline, a lot of sandbags, some primacord and millisecond-delay detonators with a main high explosive projecting charge. In addition to the big stuff, we had the usual bullet effects charges, capsule guns — fully- and semi-automatic — and an air cannon which was used to overturn a jeep."

At the height of the battle. Bond steals a cargo plane — actually an American-made C-130 Hercules made over with Russian markings. As he races down the runway with an armored car in hot pursuit, Bond manages to lift off just in time to avoid a head-on collision with a smaller plane attempting to land. The hair-raising near-miss' and the smaller plane's subsequent collision with the armored car was achieved entirely through the use of miniatures. Eager to insure a proper blend with the live-action, Richardson — with support from associate producer Tom Pevsner —convinced the powers that be to allow him to shoot his miniatures in Morocco with the same mountains in the background and the same lighting conditions as the first unit. He was very satisfied with the results.

"We used two scales of plane because of the difference in size between the Hercules and the landing aircraft. If we had built everything to the scale of the landing aircraft, then the Hercules would have been unmanageable. We would have needed a model with a twenty-five-foot wingspan. If we had built everything to the scale of the Hercules, however, then the landing aircraft would have been too small to rig the explosion. So at first we had a twelfth-scale landing aircraft and a twelfth-scale Hercules — which had a twelve-foot wingspan —and we shot the Hercules roaring down the runway and taking off over the smaller plane. We also had a twelfth-scale armored car since all three were seen together. Then as soon as the Hercules was off the ground and out of our shot, we substituted a sixth-scale passenger aircraft which gave us better angles. We could get the camera lower and see the plane come along and hit the armored car and the wing take the top off the vehicle. From that cut we went to a real armored car on fire with an actor jumping out. "

Photo: With Bond at the controls, the Hercules makes a bombing run on a bridge as Soviet tanks attempt to pursue their equestrian adversaries. / In reality, the bridge being used on location was not the most impressive of structures. / To make it — and its subsequent destruction — more dramatic, Richardson and his crew created an extended foreground miniature to heighten the structure. A rough cardboard mockup was fashioned first to test the approach. / Once the basic concept was approved, the model unit constructed an elaborate miniature that was aligned in such a manner that the real bridge surface could be used in the rear. Twenty feet across and four-and-a-half feet high, the bridge and ravine set was erected in front of the camera with the real bridge about a thousand feet behind it / Scenes of the bridge exploding and collapsing into the ravine were shot with high-speed pyrotechnics on a much larger miniature.

A second and equally remarkable miniature was used in a continuation of the same sequence. Bond's freedom-fighter friends are being routed by the Russians and so he steps in with some much-needed air support. As the Afghans retreat across a bridge with the Russian tanks hard on their heels. Bond pilots his transport overhead and drops a bomb between them. "There never was a bridge like the one you see in the film," Richardson explained. "Well, there was a little bridge. Lengthwise it was the same as the one you see on screen, but height-wise it was at most fifteen or twenty feet above the river bed. Of course, that wouldn't look very spectacular when it s collapsing. So — again in conjunction with Mike Lamont — we constructed a foreground miniature of the ravine and a different bridge. We used the existing bridge from the handrail down to the road level so that you could see vehicles driving along it, but everything beneath that was a miniature." The foreground miniature — approximately twenty feet across and four-and-a-half feet high —  was erected twenty-three feet from the camera lens, with the real bridge about a thousand feet away.

Richardson always tries to put as much camera movement on his models as possible, so in this sequence all of the shots were designed to include either a nodal pan or a zoom or a combination of moves. "On the first shot, we had the horsemen galloping across the real bridge, followed by two tanks firing their guns with a big fire on each side of the bridge. The real Hercules aircraft was flying across in the background. But the ravine which formed the whole lower half of the frame and which showed a bridge on stilts over a hundred-foot chasm was just a miniature. The river in the bottom was in fact cellophane paper and glitter. All of the blowing up was actually done on another bridge which we constructed at Pinewood. The original foreground model was about thirtieth-scale, but for the explosion we needed something much larger. So the bridge on the backlot was quarter-scale and we had just one part of the back wall of the ravine and about two-thirds or three-quarters of the bridge because it was all shot from the bottom looking up. Even at that, it was twenty-five feet tall and sixty feet long. We blew that bridge out a section at a time and did a series of cuts of its destruction."

Complicating matters was the fact that the foreground miniature was shot in November in the Sahara where it was still fairly bright and sunny. The quarter-scale model, however, was shot at Pinewood over Christmas and the first part of January. The crew had to scrape ice off the model every day before filming, but fortunately providence provided a few days of winter sunshine so that the shots matched.

Bond saves the day for the freedom-fighters, but then discovers that his plane is out of fuel. Moments before it crashes into a mountainside, he devises a quick escape by attaching a drop chute to a jeep in the cargo bay, strapping himself and Kara in and releasing the pallet-mounted vehicle out the rear hatchway. The parachute deploys and the jeep lands on the ground with a more or less gentle thud. Though such heavy equipment drops are common practice in military airlift circles — without people on board, however — for the film the jeep that falls out of the Hercules was only nine inches long. In feet, the whole sequence was done with models — from the drop to the hit. To get the miniature footage to cut with the real footage of Bond and Kara bouncing in the front seat after the hit, Richardson employed a standard military ring chute which was attached to the real jeep and towed along behind it. Timothy Dalton was therefore able to drive the jeep across the desert and up and off a two-foot ramp to simulate the landing. Then, to make the impact look much harder than it was, Richardson augmented the hit with dust explosions.

Running alongside the obvious effects are a myriad of little things which are not particularly special, but lumped together represent a tremendous amount of work. Included were all the gags in Q's workshop. His ghetto blaster, for instance, gives a whole new meaning to the colloquialism. The ghetto blaster was actually fired by HRH' when he came down to the studio — you know, Prince Charles," Richardson smiled. "He paid us a visit and we got him to fire the missile — not the one we see in the film, but a rehearsal one. I must say, he was very good. Then there was the other little gag with the sofa that swallows a person. And there was the key ring that had to have smoke coming out. That might seem rather straightforward, but we had to make a larger scale one and fit it with hoses to get the smoke to look right. Often you can spend as much time on the little things as you do on the great big effects because they are so annoyingly fiddly."

With the amount of work to be done on a Bond film, Richardson relies heavily on his well-trained crew. "I have a basic crew nucleus. John Morris has been with me for years. He has looked after at least one of the units on all of my Bond films. Likewise, Ken Morris — who is John's father — has been in charge of the workshop for me on all the Bond pictures. Ken is very much our Q. He has the easy task of working out how to build everything and putting up with me breathing down his neck and saying "Mot that way' or "Hurry up' or "Do that first' or whatever. He's fairly tolerant. He goes a few days and doesn't talk to me — until he has to — and then we re friends again. On A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights, Joss Williams looked after one of the units and did a lot of the basic organizing. When you are working in three or four countries — one after another — you've got to have somebody with each unit and then somebody leapfrogging ahead to prepare the next location. On The Living Daylights. Chris Corbould looked after the first unit for the first half of the film and then worked with the second unit for the Aston Martin chase sequence."

Photo: John Richardson and Leslie Dear examine the quarter-scale bridge — twenty-five feet tall and sixty feet long — erected for the detonation scene. / Mission complete, but with his plane critically low on fuel. Bond straps himself and his leading lady into a pallet-mounted Jeep and ejects it out the rear hatchway just as the Hercules is about to crash into a cliff. The entire sequence was accomplished with radio-controlled miniatures. / On location in Morocco, Richardson was able to employ an actual rock face — deceptive in its apparent scale — into which the plane could be crashed without the need fora miniature setting.

There is something special about the Bond films. They are truly a family affair. Cubby Broccoli has produced all fifteen — not counting two rogue' Bonds, Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again— and is regarded as the father of Bond by his crew. Because of the success of the series, funding is never too big a problem. Broccoli can afford the best and that is what he hires. John Olen, who has directed four of the films — an unprecedented record — insists that as a result, a Bond film is a moviemaker's dream. " Anything you imagine, you can do." Richardson enjoys meeting the demands of that sort of unbridled imagination —and undoubtedly the risks. "I love it because it gives me the chance to do the kinds of things I always wanted to do as a schoolboy — but always got punished for trying."

Moonraker, Octopussy, A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights photographs copyright © by Danjaq S.A. and United Artists Pictures, Inc. All rights reserved. Special thanks to Pat Perry.

copyright © 1988 by Don Shay. All rights reserved.

[Source: Cinefex #33, February 1988, P.4-23]

Moonraker

At first, JAMES BOND — SECRET AGENT 007 faced the awesome power and iron grip of

Dr.No

Next, the heartless Rosa Klebb and brutal Red Grant laid a trap for our hero, baited with a beautiful woman sent

From Russia With Love

Then a master criminal with the Midas touch set his sights on a Fort Knox robbery and it was James Bond versus

Goldfinger

The world was the hostage, a stolen H-Bomb was the threat, and millions were tne ransom. But Bond defeated

the sinister operation

“Thunderball"

Spaceflights were being hijacked and the consumately evil Ernst Blofeld thought he had Killed 007. But Bond came back, proving

"You Only Live Twice"

Blofeld returns to taunt and haunt a love smitten Bond with a germ warfare plot. 007 defeats him, weds, loses his love, but remains

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The planet is at the mercy of a gem-powered killer satellite controlled oy 007’s arch-enemy. Bonabeacs Blofeld for the last time in

"Diamonds Are Forever"

Voodoo, drugs and a crime syndicate collide to wage a weird war with the law. It's Bond against q a villain who n- aa __ believes in the credo

Live And Let Die

A solar cell with the power of the sun becomes the object of a million dollar assassin — a man with a solid gold bullet aimed at 007 —

“The Man With The Golden Gun"

A perfect world under the sea is visualized by a madman who cares not for the detente that allies Bona with a most beautiful Russian agent who called 007

The Spy Who Loved Me

NOW: Secret Agent JAMES BOND’S most exciting adventure!

Moonraker

Cast of Characters

In 1953, author Ian Fleming created super agent James Bond, the dashing but deadly British operative. Also known as 007, he’s the man with a Licence To Kill! Now, twenty-six years later, the eleventh and most spectacular of the films based on the exploits of James Bond is exploding on motion picture screens around the world: Moonraker! Like all the James Bond sagas, Moonraker has a fascinating array of characters ranging from the valiant to the villainous - with a brilliant cast of actors to bring them to life!

JAMES BOND Roger Moore is the handsome hero of the legendary television series THE SAINT, as well as twenty-two motion pictures — four of them James Bond films. Although he modestly attributes his fame as an actor to “quite a lot of luck,” his talent, continental charm, and rugged athletic ability have earned him a place as one of the cinema’a superstars. Born in Stockwell, England in 1927, Moore studied his craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He is married to the former Luisa Mattioli and resides in the South of France. Speaking about the explosions, laser-guns, and fisticuffs that make this James Bond epic so thrilling, Moore cheerfully notes, “No doubt about it, 007 is the right number to have in these films.’

JAWS At 7’2” and 320 pounds, Richard Kiel as Jaws is one of the most imposing screen bad guys in history. But what a bad guy! The public loves the metal-molared menace, and his fan mail is second only to that of Roger Moore! Born in Detroit in 1939, Kiel held jobs as a cemetery plot salesperson, math teacher, and nightclub bouncer before settling into the colorful career of acting. Among his many credits are such television series as I SPY and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. His motion pictures include THE LONGEST YARD, THE SILVER STREAK, and the previous James Bond extravaganza The Spy Who Loved Me.

HOLLY GOODHEAD The super C.I.A. agent of Moonraker is played by super actress Lois Chiles. A native of Alice, Texas, Ms. Chiles was a successful model before deciding to become an actress. Green-eyed and brown-haired, the 5'8” tall beauty was flying home from filming DEATH ON THE NILE when she found herself sitting next to Moonraker director Lewis Gilbert. As the actress explains, "There I was wondering what I might do next when BINGO! I’m suddenly being asked to test for Holly’s part!” Her roles include - THE GREAT GATSBY and COMA.

DRAX The sinister, world conquering Hugo Drax is played by the gifted character actor Michael Lonsdale — whose most violent hobby is painting landscapes! "After being Drax for six months," he frets, "I hope I have enough friends left who will want to have a look at my work!" Born in Paris in 1931, Lonsdale worked in radio before studying acting. He made his film debut in the 1956 French motion picture C’EST ARRIVE A ADEN, which was followed by nearly one hundred other movies, including the popular DAY OF THE JACKAL. Mr. Lonsdale currently reaides in the Left Bank apartment which he has maintained for over two decades.

CORINNE DUFOUR Drax's earthbound pilot who falls in love with irresistible James Bond—and pays with her life for betraying her nasty employer — is played by the lovely Corinne Clery. Standing 5’5”, with grey-green eyes, the actress was born in Paris in 1950. She left school at the age of eighteen to become e fashion model and, five years later, landed the lead role in the motion picture THE STORY OF O. A new career was on its way! Prior to Moonraker, Ms. Clery also made such films as AUTO STOP, FADE OUT, and THE HUMANOID with Richard Kiel.

MANUELA A professional end romantic accomplice to James Bond — one who has a deadly run-in with Jaws — Manuela is played by the gorgeous Emily Bolton. Born on the island of Aruba, the twenty-eight year old actress grew up in England and in Holland. Her earliest ambition was to become a concert pianist, but at the age of eighteen, she decided to change professions. Studying drama first in Amsterdam and later in London, she appeared in numerous television series before winning a leading part in the motion picture VALENTINO. Now the London-based actress is shooting a comedy-thriller in Europe.

CHANG Drax's henchman, who engages James Bond in one of the longest screen brawls in years, and meets his end in as spectacular a fashion as any in motion picture history. Toshiro Suga is the actor who brings the nasty Chang to life. Born in Tokyo in 1950, Suga acted in several films before moving to Paris to study art. The holder a Black Belt in judo, and a part-time martial arts teacher, Suga says of his role, “Sure, Chang is a bad guy: But then, bad guys always have character and I like that.” Suga still resides in Paris where, although his first love remains painting, he will continue to make movies.

OLD FAVORITES Returning in Moonraker are three of Bond's most enduring supporting players: from left to right, Bernard Lee as M, the head of the British Secret Service; his devoted secretary Miss Moneypenny, in the person of actress Lois Maxwell; and Desmond Llewelyn as Q, M's right hand man and the designer of the many super gadgets used by James Bond.

Moonraker Filmbook

Nobody does it better!

Those four words, borrowed from a stirring Bond theme song, aptly describe one of the greatest film heroes of all-time: the legendary, unbeatable, unstoppable, unflappable, unsurpassable James Bond—Agent 007 of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Whether sleuthing, loving, fighting, or living the good life, nobody does it better than Bond.

Cool, yet compassionate. Capable, yet curious. Deadly and daring. Dynamic and desirable. Picking the perfect wine for any occasion, or saving the world. The man to call is JAMES BOND!

But to secure the safety of a stolen Space Shuttle?

To quell a cunning, capricious, international conspiracy of sinister space scientists?

To mash the mad plan of a murdering, megalomaniacal, militaristic multi- millionaire?

Can even the amazing 007 hope to handle the most exceptionally evil threat, the most paralyzingly powerful foes, of his long and illustrious career?

Join James Bond solving the mystery, battling the villains, and blasting off in the adventure of Moonraker!

THE SKYJACKED SHUTTLE

The shining sun rises on a new day of scientific achievement and international cooperation. No longer do powerful nations view each other with suspicion and hate.

A glorious example of this new detente streaks across the sky, over the glistening waters of the Atlantic Ocean. A massive 747 jetliner is winging its way from the United States to Great Britain, a NASA Space Shuttle firmly attached to its back.

In the plane’s cabin sit two contented yet conscientious pilots, both of them wearing NASA uniforms. Behind them is a British Navigation officer in his RAF duds—another example of the strong bond between allies.

Photo: The mighty, magnificent Space Shuttle prepares to blast 007 to new heights in Moonraker.

The craft’s destination: London, where, in the name of “share and share alike,” the English can study the complexities of the spacegoing Shuttle.

Photo: It's a plot to end all plots; a plan to end all plans. James Bond comes up against a villain as ruthless as he is rich - pitiless as he is powerful. Can even 007 stop him and his minions?

But more than futuristic equipment lies within the walls of the Shuttle. There is evil afoot, in the form of two stowaways aboard. Seconds later, the Shuttle’s ignition light turns a fiery red and the craft rockets off the top of the jet. In the horrible, flaming trail of the Space Shuttle’s rockets, the jumbo jetliner disintegrates in a sea of boiling, whirling, blackened ash.

The remains of the once-proud plane and courageous men crash to earth—while the skyjacked Space Shuttle speeds toward ... who knows where?

The public-at-large is kept from panicking thanks to a news blackout, but the reaction of the international investigation agencies is immediate!
Shock.
Panic.
Rage.
Confusion.
Wonderment.
And finally, helplessness!
But in one office, the reaction is strong ... bold ... and sure. From the head of the British Secret Service, a man known only as “M”, comes the word:
Get James Bond!
But where IS James Bond?

photo: Jaws gets his paws on the cable car's wheel. He wants to stop the world and get Bond off!

THE FABULOUS. FREEFALL FIGHT!

Yet another plane streaks through the sky. But this craft is a small, luxurious private jet: it houses not skyjackers, but the debonair 007 himself. With him, not surprisingly, is a beautiful companion. But this shapely cabin-mate, dressed in the outfit of a stewardess, has treachery, and not love, in her heart!

After a single kiss, a formidable-looking gun appears at James Bond’s side.

Enemy agents have the hero at bay! A cruel-looking pilot appears, holding yet another gun on 007, and wearing a parachute on his uniformed back. With a leer, he informs the agent that they plan to leave him in the jet after destroying the controls. But the resourceful 007 does not intend to die in a crashing Lear!

With a lightning-quick move, he knocks the pistol from the girl’s hand, and smashes into the pilot. Suddenly, a hand reaches from amongst the two struggling figures. It pulls the “door release handle.”

A sucking pressure!

The hiss of whipping wind!

In an instant, the jet’s emergency door has opened dangerously. The pilot desperately pushes Bond toward the exit, but agent 007 turns the tables and it is the pilot who takes the fall.

Bond watches the villain’s descent from the door of the plane. But his look of satisfaction vanishes as it becomes apparent that the danger is not yet over. Two hands appear behind him. And they are not the dainty hands of the stewardess. These are massive paws, unbelievably big. And they slap onto Bond’s back with the power of battering rams.

There is only one direction Bond can go, and that is down.

And down.

Without a parachute!

Now it is the mammoth Jaws, that gigantic, steel-toothed bad guy seen swimming into the sunset at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me, who watches Bond drop like a stone toward the earth below.

The dark ground spins dangerously close as 007 spots the parachuted pilot still freefalling nearby. With dizzying agility, Bond hurls himself on the hapless man and wrests the parachute from his back.

Slipping the life-saving parcel to his own back, Bond prepares to pull the ripcord. But then, astonishingly, a bullet whips by his head from above. Spinning about, he sees the huge body of a freefalling Jaws!

A frantic struggle ensues as the two antagonists plummet toward the hard ground. Finally, Bond wrests himself free of the giant’s grip and sends the speeding adversary toward the ungiving earth below.

But what would be certain death for any other man is just the barest hazard for the titan called Jaws. He slams into the big top of a circus, literally bringing down the house!

James Bond’s descent is far more leisurely. He floats down under his open parachute, unaware that he is about to embark on a mission of gravity in a place with no gravity!

photo: Things are bad for Bond all over. He has a high-altitude headache and that choking feeling you get when you're pushed out of a plane... without a parachute!

THE DOMINION OF DRAX

M , Q , and Britain’s Minister of Defense, Frederick Gray, place the safety of the missing Shuttle in Bond's able hands. His mission: find the craft and the person responsible for stealing it!

007 begins his search in Southern California, and the headquarters of Drax Industries—the manufacturer of Moonraker Space Shuttles for the American government. There, Bond finds much more than he bargained for, such as—

Gorgeous Corinne Dufour, a helicopter pilot for Drax Industries. He also finds:

The Drax estate, which sprawls for as far as the eye can see!

A near-army of scientists, lab personnel, researchers, and astronauts, all recruited by Drax!

And an insidious bodyguard named Chang, who does Drax's deadly bidding.

But before the danger begins, the bearded, somber, chillingly civilized Drax sends 007 on a tour of his facilities. He is shepherded by one of Drax's top aides: a green-eyed, darkhaired beauty of a doctor named Holly Goodhead.

Holly shows Bond the Drax-works. First, there’s the Drax residence, a glorious chateau sent from France stone-by-stone. Then there's the sumptuous garden, filled with rounded examples of womanhood training for Space Shuttle positions. Finally, there's the workshop, filled with the more mundane likes of technicians and sundry testing equipment.

One such piece of machinery is the centrifuge, the merry-go-round device which simulates the gravitational force of a space shot. Dr. Goodhead, outwardly unresponsive toward 007's charms, and unwilling to answer his more provocative questions, flatly tells him that three ‘G’s’ of force is the equivalent of a take-off, that seven G’s usually crushes a person into unconsciousness, and that twenty G’s can seal a trainee’s fate.

She challenges Bond to try the device and, casually, he accepts. Even as he is strapped into the seat of the centrifuge—“for his own safety,” of course—he is unaware of the silent, sinister shape of Chang looming over the control board.

The test begins, although it nearly means the end of Bond. The speed meter on the control console reads three G’s and climbing. Soon it registers five G's and 007 is in agony. Seconds later the meter’s needle exceeds seven G’s and continues to climb!

Holly is called away by a phone call from Drax, but Chang’s evil figure lingers by the controls. The pressure of the whirling machine pins Bond to the padded chair like an iron vice.

His brain burns! His limbs scream!

Is there nothing 007 can do?

Of course! Help, in the form of a gadget developed by Q, saves the day. Around Bond’s wrist is something which resembles a fashionable steel strap. But with a flick of his wrist, Bond sends a dart speeding into the engine of the centrifuge. With a tortured cry of metal, the murderous machine grinds to a halt.

Bond escapes to sleuth again, which he quickly does. As soon as nignt falls on the Drax estate, he discovers the charms of the pilot Corinne, who resides in the chateau. Corinne is far less reluctant than Holly to offer 007 all manner of assistance. With her cooperation, and with the help of Bond’s handy cigarette case—which doubles as an X-ray machine—they break into Drax’s wall safe.

Bond gets his next lead from papers he finds therein, not realizing that their actions have guaranteed the death of the fetching Corinne! The evil Chang spies her leaving the safe room, and reports this to Drax.

The next day dawns sunny and beautiful. Drax gathers Chang, some of his shapely astronauts-in-training, and a team of Doberman pinschers for a little hunting trip. Bond makes a hasty exit, but after he leaves, Corinne goes to the dogs—literally!

The seemingly docile Dobermans turn savage upon Drax’s command. They chase the poor girl into the forest of the estate, and hound her to her death, Corinne dying beneath their wicked teeth and savage claws. But it is a death that 007 would avenge!

VENGEANCE IN VENICE

The clue in the safe takes Bond to the Venini Glass Works, a combination glass factory, showroom, market, and museum. But a beautifully wrought crystal is not the only thing that draws Bond’s attention. Besides the stunning salesgirl and tour guide, he spots Holly Goodhead. What is she doing abroad in Venice?

Photo: A gondola in Venice. What could be more natural? Only this is the "Bondola" floating on air across St. Mark's Square.

But of more immediate concern are the dangers which lurk in the waterways near St. Marks Square. The local inhabitants use gondolas the way Americans use taxis, and Bond firmly believes that when near Rome, do as the near-Romans do. However, his sea-going craft is no ordinary ship—as several waterbound thugs discover when they try to assassinate our hero. Guiding a funeral barge beside the unsuspecting agent, they loiter as the “corpse” they carry comes suddenly to life with a very nasty knife in his pale hand!

The corpse—actually a trained killer—hurls his weapon into Bond’s gondolier, then tries to do in 007 with blade after blade, which he plucks from the customized lid of his coffin and flings with deadly precision. But Bond has some customized equipment of his own!

photo: This slimy, sinister snake has a "crush" on 007, as Bond tries to get a grip on the slippery problem.

At the press of a button, the gondola reveals itself to be a supervessel, complete with a set of electronic controls and a powerful outboard motor.

Taking a moment to repay the death of his gondolier, Bond steers his speeding craft into the watery byways. Some newly arriving killers in an outboard give chase, just as the funeral barge—its corpse really dead this time— crashes into a low bridge.

After a hectic, hazardous chase, Bond makes his escape with another of “Q’s” inspired devices. With the pull of a lever, the gondola becomes a hovercraft, leaping onto land while the pursuing boat sputters helplessly offshore. It comes to rest in the midst of diners and tourists in St. Marks Square.

But 007’s mission in Venice is far from finished. The mystery of the Venice Glass Works has yet to be plumbed. And Bond’s plumbing leads to one shock after another.

First, he discovers a fully equipped lab behind the establishment, where an especially deadly form of poison gas is being produced. Then, in the process of stealing a sample of the toxin, Bond sees a tiny vial of the stuff kill two scientists. Finally, the secret agent finds himself face-to-face with a very angry Chang!

They fight!

Ruthlessly!

Violently!

Their battle royale carries them through the glass showroom and into a crate-filled loft. Bond manages to propel Chang into a wooden crate. As the dazed bodyguard collects his wits, 007 notices his next lead stencilled on the side of the broken box. But first, he must survive his bout with Chang!

The fight rages on, crashing its way upward to the famous Merceria Clock Tower above St. Mark’s Square. Inside the huge structure. Bond rings Chang’s death knell by throwing the villain through the zodiac-glass clock face!

The killer falls into the dining area below, landing headfirst in the body of a grand piano. Having thus given Chang an “ear for music,” Bond sallies forth to find and confront Holly Goodhead. Turning on the charm, Bond disarms the girl... in more ways than one! Correctly assuming that she is a C.I.A. agent who had been planted undercover in Drax’s employ, Bond grabs her purse to discover a radio handbag, a missile-shooting diary, and a hypodermic ballpoint pen. Clearly, Holly is not a girl with whom to be trifled!

Striking a truce, the two form a romantic partnership that lasts as long as it takes for Bond to slip into the night. His next stop:

Rio de Janeiro!

Photo: Drax's nerve gas claims a victim. Talk about toxic! This deadly stuff will take your breath away!
Photo: Only in a Bond movie can a "corpse" become a killer! For 007, this funeral barge becomes a double edged threat!
Photo: "Shall we dance?" Bond seems to be asking his oriental adversary. But, in reality, theirs is a dance of death.

THE CARNIVAL AND CABLE CAR CAPER

Before his departure, 007 takes just enough time to leave the vial of nerve gas with his superiors. Meanwhile, Drax is without a bodyguard. Since the rich lunatic hires only the best, he takes on the overwhelming, overbearing, overachieving, overdeveloped Jaws to replace Chang.

Elsewhere, 007 has also picked up a new ally, one who is far shapelier than Jaws. Called Manuela, she is a sexy South American secret agent who knows a great deal about undercover work—as Bond takes the time to learn before setting off to investigate his new lead, the crate he had broken using Chang’s head. It bore the logo of the Carlos and Wilmsberg Importing Company, a subsidiary of Drax Industries.

That night, wildly costumed revelers take to the streets of Rio for their annual carnival, while Bond and Manuela take to the shadows and alleys to investigate a Drax warehouse along the route of the carnival. Amid the dancing, laughing, drinking, shouting, wildly-costumed celebrants, Bond casually breaks into the supplyhouse.

But there is one wildly-costumed creature who does not dance, laugh, or drink. And he cannot shout, for, instead of teeth, he has bright, interlocking dentures of steel. He watches Manuela, who is waiting for Bond, and bides his time.

When Bond finds a label for “Drax Air Freight” in the otherwise empty warehouse, Jaws feels that he can delay no longer. He stalks Manuela in the empty alleyway; she pulls a knife on him, but with one huge paw he sweeps it from her grasp. Then he pulls her to him and his wide lips part in a gleaming, ghastly grin.

Is it to be adios for Manuela? Not if our hero can help it. And help it he does!

Leaping from the warehouse, Bond lands on Jaws, and the two resume their continuing battle. Suddenly, the alley is filled with happy humanity, a sheer mass of people celebrating the carnival. Without warning, they engulf the fighters, inadvertently separating Bond and Jaws. When they surge back into the street, they take a very frustrated, very mad Jaws with them!

The next morning, the matter of the Drax Air Freight label must be attended to. Heading for the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain—the spectacular, gumdrop shaped peak that can only be reached via a slow funicular ride—he intends to use coin-operated telescopes atop the mountain to spy on the Drax company. But Bond is not the only one who rises to the occasion. Holly has also ascended to the summit of Sugar Loaf, and already learned that the Drax group is sending up planes from the nearby San Pietro Airport every two hours. Their destination? That is exactly what Bond and Goodhead intend to find out.

First, however, they have to get down from the mountain. Usually, that means a short, enjoyable cable-car ride. But not when the carriage’s only occupants are our two heroes, and the control booth has been invaded by — JAWS!

Photo: Bond and Holly make mincemeat of a pair of Moonraker Space Shuttle pilots
Photo: Arrival! 007 and Holly make it to Drax's stronghold in outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere.

Suddenly, the scenic trip is turned into a horror-frought obstacle course. Using his slab-like hands, Jaws halts the cable car. Then, with his metal molars, he bites one of the support cables in half!

Bond is practically hurled from the car by the resultant shock, but with Holly’s help manages to remain onboard. Alas, the attack is far from over. The Goliath-like heavy decides that it is time for a frontal assault: mounting the roof of another cable car, he signals a confederate to move it toward Bond’s stranded carriage.

As soon as the two compartments are at a level keel, Jaws hurls his hulk across the abyss and continues his battle with Bond. Fortunately, they are able to cut the altercation short.

Jaws crashes through a door in the roof of the cable car. This is secured by 007, who proceeds to coil a chain around the overhead wires.

photo: The fight is joined! The end is near! And Bond is cornered! Can 007 turn defeat into victory?

As the heroes slide down the heavy lifeline, the irrepressible Jaws recovers. Fully and wickedly conscious, he signals a compatriot-in-crime to send the funicular after the fleeing operatives.

The fight becomes a race! Will Bond reach the ground before the pursuing car knocks them off the wire? Clinging together, the pair slides faster and faster, ever downward, gritting their teeth—until, at the last possible moment, they let go of the chain. Moments later, Jaws’ cable car crashes into the ground level control booth.

At last, all is well for Bond and Holly. Jaws has been sidelined, Bond has gotten himself and his companion down in one piece, Holly is openly grateful, and an ambulance is nearing to check for injuries.

Only when the white-garbed orderlies show up does the bubble of security burst! One of the newcomers brandishes a blackjack destined for 007’s skull, while two others jump Holly with more than medical attention in mind.

Photo: The ever-able Holly Goodhead winds up for a paralyzing punch to the jaw of a Drax technician.

When Bond regains consciousness, he finds himself and Holly tied to wheeled stretchers in the back of a Drax ambulance. Yet, it takes more than mere ropes to hold James Bond! Hurriedly disengaging himself, he jumps a scalpel-wielding guard. A violent and a vicious fight ensues, rocking the ambulance on its shocks—until, with a mighty bound, 007 smashes his attacker onto his empty stretcher and they both bolt out the rear door. Bond drops off and tumbles to a bruising halt, but the stretcher keeps on going and going until it’s gone, the ambulance guard flying head-first into a roadside billboard. The ambulance, too, keeps on going with Holly Goodhead still a captive onboard.

photo: The diabolical Drax delivers his deadly demands from his demonic domain in space.

Photo: The Marines have landed! From the Halls of the Moonrakers to the shores of Space Colonies! They will fight the country's battles on the land and on the sea...of space!

THE MONASTERY MEETING AND MAYAN MASSACRE

Sand.
Sun.
And Secret Agents!

That’s what James Bond finds in a dusty Pampas town. Dressed as a gaucho, 007 enters a monastery. The ancient dwelling place of saints and clergy is filled with dark-robed monks—but what monks! Some of them kick up their heels in karate exercises, some hurl bolos that decapitate life-size mannequins with explosive charges, and some turn fantastic ray guns on other dummies who melt into nothingness—oblivion!

The only thing normal about the monastery is the calming presence of M, Q, and their faithful aide Miss Moneypenny.

Awaiting 007 is an analysis of the nerve gas he stole from the Drax lab. Not only had Q traced its vital ingredient—an orchid called Orchidacea Negra—to the upper reaches of the nearby Amazoco, but he had prepared a means for Bond to track it down.

As usual, Q’s way is fast!
Futuristic!
Fabulous!

In a twinkling, 007 finds himself piloting the Q-Craft, a sleek motor launch capable of terrific speed—as well as spectacular destruction. And both attributes are sorely needed when three high powered Drax boats blast after the operative.

Bond is more than a match for his pursuers, adding years of battle-honed skills to Q’s armaments. The first pursuing ship is quickly plastered across the breadth of the surrounding jungle. The second finds itself the attentive object of a tenacious, motor-seeking torpedo launched from the bow of the Q-Craft. It swiftly joins the previous speed boat in eternity.

But the final enemy boat is piloted by Jaws, and it’s armed to the stern with missile-firing cannons.

The quiet, fauna-lined river is suddenly ripped with gunfire! Dotted with huge jets of exploding shells!

The chase is on in earnest!

But this particular river happens to end in the spectacular Iguacu Falls, an incredible drop of roaring, roiling water. And James Bond is speeding right towards it!

Like lethal, liquid clamps, the water grips the underside of both boats. The river rushes forward, rocketing the vessels toward the waterfall. Jaws and his fearful crew scramble to escape, but 007 holds the course, driving straight ahead with the engines full out!

The ship surges forward, slapping across the water.

The chasm of the fall nears.

It seems certain that James Bond is doomed!

Then, at the last moment, 007 reaches up. Clasps are secured. Cords snap taut. Two levers are quickly slapped down, and—

Bond shoots up, up, and away! The entire Q-Craft awning detaches itself and unfurls as a fully outfitted hang-glider. Bond is back in action, and it’s the only way to fly!

Jaws and his group are not so lucky. The inexorable grip of the falls pulls the Drax craft over the lip and dashes it to the rocks far, far below. Maybe this time it’s truly the end of the formidable Jaws. Or ... like a shark, will he come swimming back for a return engagement?

007 has more than Jaws fate on his mind, however. There is still the matter of a missing Moonraker Space Shuttle,not to mention the secret scheme of the maniacal magnate to whom death means naught!

And, more immediately, Bond must make a flawless landing amid the teeming tangle of the jungle. He manages this, lighting with the precision of an experienced flier, but no sooner does he plant his feet on terra firma than a striking blonde beauty appears. She wears a flowing, very revealing white gown, secured with a pin bearing the insignia of—

Drax Industries!

Feeling that the answer to this globe-girdling mystery is about to become clear, 007 gives chase. The female’s flight leads him across rock faces, through dense foliage, around trees, and finally into the breathtaking remains of an ancient Mayan city. The blonde beauty, poised, serene, inviting, stands at the very apex of a giant stone pyramid, having ascended on a stairway etched from the solid rock.

There can be no doubt now. The girl has intentionally lured the agent to this destination. Intrigued but wary. Bond follows.

Inside the centuries-old structure, he discovers a dazzling combination of the antique and the avant-garde. More stairways etched from solid rock. Sparkling cascades of water and crystal. Bold steel structures and walls lined with hieroglyphics. And, in the midst of it all, the blonde beauty.

007 moves in for a closer look, and quickly realizes that the chamber is filled with girls, all of whom he has seen before. Two were in Drax’s California chateau. Another pair had been at the Venini Glass Works. Two more had been seen with the Dobermans the day Corinne died. A final duo had been training at the Drax astronaut complex. The final, terrible truth of Drax’s master plan was beginning to form in Bond’s mind.

Even now, the blonde beauty is beckoning him from the other side of a bridge. The set-up is much too neat. In his long career, Bond has seen too many bridges lined with booby traps, and no less number of trap doors over pools filled with all manner of acquatic danger. Had they brought him this far to ensure his demise?

Bond decides to circle the pool using the rocks which surround it. Suddenly, as 007 steps on one of the stones, it tips up and dumps him into the drink.

Bond’s caution has backfired!

Even as he struggles to the water’s surface, a gigantic, twining, deadly snake slides silently into the water.

Faster than Bond can reach the side of the pool, the exotic monster weaves its way across the agent’s body. In a moment, Bond is trapped within its slimy coils. With the power of a steel press it constricts him; with the immutability of a steamroller, it forces him ever deeper.

What to do?

If the water doesn’t drown him, the snake will crush him. Will this jungle beast succeed where the greatest villains in history have failed?

Luckily, James Bond has something up his sleeve. More precisely, he has something in his pocket: the ball-point hypodermic he had taken from Holly’s purse in Venice. With a blast of strength, 007 buries the needle in the snake’s
neck, then presses the button.

The snake shudders, and soon the water itself is rippling from the snake’s death throes. The coils loosen from about Bond’s body. He can breath again!

But other dangers lurk within the Mayan pyramid. Just when 007 is certain that he had gotten through the worst of it, two great hands pluck him from the pool as though he were a rag doll. He looks up and moans: it seems that Jaws, too, lives!

The malevolent gargantuan is soon joined by the wicked Drax. The villain welcomes Bond coldly, then orders Jaws to lead the agent to the pyramid’s Great Chamber, the very nerve center of Drax’s operation.

There, amid—

incredible machinery

dozens of guards

and a horde of technicians, the industrialist all but ignores 007 as he tends to the departure of his personal fleet of—

Moonraker SPACE SHUTTLES!

One blasts off from a desert locale.

Another climbs spaceward from within a mountain range.

A third rockets up.

A fourth exits a small volcano.

Back in the pyramid, a technician announces the imminent departure of yet two more transports. Their destination and secret purpose are something James Bond will have to discover ... or die trying!

If Drax or Jaws have their way, his fate will be the latter of the two. To this end, the billionaire has his metalmouthed lackey hurl 007 into a large, circular, high-ceilinged room. There, he finds his long-missing aide Holly Goodhead.

Bond looks warily about. Their prison is actually rather nice, with sumptuous decorations. Yet, something about it is vaguely disquieting!

That “ something” becomes shockingly, horrifyingly clear when the ceiling slides neatly away and the agents’ vision is blocked by a monstrous Moonraker attached to a rocket. Unfortunately, Bond and Holly are looking at it from right below its mighty thrusters! The murdering madman has actually imprisoned them in the exhaust chamber of Moonraker 5! Once the craft took off, their pleasant prison would become a chamber of searing death. Instead of a job well done, Bond and Holly would be well done!

Drax, his manner still chilly, lacking even an iota of pity, pauses before entering the Shuttle’s control cabin. He delivers a cruel farewell speech to his nemeses and then boards the vehicle.

With only three minutes to lift-off, Bond must do the impossible: find an escape from a sealed, exitless shaft. But for super agent James Bond, the impossible is commonplace.

Without wasting a second, he locates an air shaft. It has a square grille, but a grille so tightly attached that no human could possibly budge it—with the possible exception of Jaws who, alack, is on the wrong side of justice.

However, where strength fails, Q’s technology succeeds. With just two minutes before Moonraker 5 blasts off, Bond uses one of Q’s gadgets to blow the grille from the wall and swiftly pushes Holly along the tiny, makeshift escape tunnel.

One minute to go!

The Iwoonraker's supporting structure falls away.

Thirty seconds left!

The chamber fills with black smoke.

Twenty seconds!

Bond and Holly crawl desperately to safety.

Three ... two ... one ...

BLAST OFF!

White flame. Crumbling heat. Total immolation. Moonraker 5, with Drax onboard, rises skyward without a hitch. But at least Bond and Holly are alive! Thus, their next assignment is to somehow follow the madman and stop his plan, whatever it may be.

Leaving the exhaust shaft, the pair hears that Moonraker 6 is ready for launch. Holly spies its cargo: six sets of astronauts, pairs of men and women, each one as physically perfect as the next. Deciding that it would be difficult to join that group without being discovered, the agents elect to take the place of the Shuttle’s two pilots.

photo: 007 is not just "dancing on air." He and Holly are trying to appreciate the gravity of the Drax danger.

No sooner thought than done, the pair hijacks the motorized buggy which is carrying the astrofliers to the Shuttle. They make short work of the spacepilots and, with mere minutes before departure, Bond and Holly are fully spacesuited and onboard a ship bound for ... who knows where?

SPACE BELONGS TO 007

It is thirty seconds to lift off.

Thankfully for all concerned, Holly has had NASA training and is an astronaut worthy of anyone’s mettle. Besides, she reassures a slightly shaken but hardly stirred Bond, the ship is on automatic.

The TV monitors of Moonraker 6 provide the operatives with a view of their blast-off, as well as information on the progress of the other five Shuttles. Bond flips on the monitor to study their own hold. The presence of the six pairs of near-perfect astronauts causes a plot to unfold in his mind. They were going out of this world two by two ...

Why?

The answer is not long in coming. Soon, the Shuttles begin arriving at Drax’s world.

His dream.

His star.

An incredibly strange, fantastically structured space station, hovering in orbit above the earth like a monstrous mechanical spider ... waiting to strike from its black web.

Astonishing? Yes.

Logical? Yes.

Possible? Complete with a device to block out radar, telescopes, and electronic tracking systems:

Yes!

Drax has actually financed and built his own private city in space.

In quick succession, the six Moonrakers dock at six different stations on the sides of the floating structure. With a flick of the “Rotation Thrusters” the space station begins to turn, and artificial gravity is created.

Drax had done it. For years, NASA had planned and plotted, designed and devised—but Drax was the one who put the first space colony in orbit. He did it using existing
technology, and right under (not to mention over) the nose of the unsuspecting world!

Joining the throng of newly arrived astronauts, scientists, and technicians, Bond and Holly journey to the Central Command Satellite. There, 007 sees a sight which makes his blood freeze with dread:

A row of glass-like globes filled with Drax’s deadly nerve gas!

Almost immediately, Drax begins telling his minions about his dream. The deadly dream that these people would help make a reality.

In space, he plans to create a super race, a race raised with obedience to Drax foremost in their minds. These super people will then be sent to earth. Of course, there is one small impasse: to make way for Drax’s brand of perfect people, all imperfect people would have to be eliminated. And what is Drax’s definition of imperfection? Anyone and everyone who lives on the earth!

Bond’s objective is now perfectly clear: he must find the radar jamming system and destroy it. That will enable earth-based scientists to discover the space station and launch an immediate investigation.

Filled with grim resolve, Bond and Holly slip away and discover the Electronic Camouflage Unit. It is being worked by two radar operators, but—

A flash of a fist!

The blur of a karate blow!

The sharp snapping of bone against flesh!

The solid crack of a broken jaw, and Drax’s accomplices are sent to an early retirement—on the floor. With confidence and pleasure, Holly wreaks similar havoc on the radar jamming system, and it is put out of commission for good! The result? Space officials in Houston can suddenly see. Moscow can suddenly see. Cape Canaveral and the U.S. Space Marine Center can suddenly see.

And they don’t like what they are looking at!

Photo: Drax's dream-world goes up in smoke!

Col. Scott, U.S., calls General Gogol of the U.S.S.R. Both are in agreement:

An attack must be launched at once! But is it too late? Already, Drax is depositing globes of nerve gas in a death orbit around the earth. Upon entering the earth’s atmosphere, these spheres will disintegrate and destroy all human life with their toxic contents.

Photo: The Moonraker Space Shuttles are attracted like flies to the metal Space Station spider in the sky.

From their vantage point, 007 and Holly spy the globes starting their slow descent. But their worst problem is who spies them.

The one and only... the ultimate... the indestructible... Jaws!

Their battle is renewed! This time, Bond tries every physical attack trick in the book—all to no avail. Jaws captures both agents and drags them before an enraged Drax. To prove his total power, the megalomaniac promises to destroy both 007 and the approaching U.S. Marine Space Shuttle.

But the dynamic English operative has other ideas. Though Jaws might SEEM unbeatable, nobody — NOBODY—does it better than Bond!

Drax orders his large laser gun turret to wipe out the attacking craft. However, just as the weapon is about to lock onto its target, 007 strikes.

With lightning-quick reflexes, he stabs off the artificial gravity switch. Immediately, the Rotation Thrusters shut down and the space station reacts like a derailing turbotrain!

Everyone and everything floats forward and upward at the same time. Equipment and personnel alike go flying across the Command Satellite. Tne marines seize the moment of disorientation to move in.

Drax’s fighters hasten to the airlocks and hurry into space to do battle. Suddenly, the blackness of the cosmos is illuminated by an incredible light show of sizzling death. Laser light cuts, punctures, and kills, while bright silver spacesuits zip back and forth.

As the battle rages, the Rotation Thrusters are reactivated and Drax is once more in command. Even so, his usually calm demeanor begins to crack. Bond has upset his plans and must die! Yet, Drax refuses to dirty his hands with the killing, and instructs Jaws to hurl the agents from the air-lock into the cold vacuum of space.

But Drax has made a fatal mistake. In his haste ... in his hate ... in his private and compassionless world, he forgot one thing. His plan was to create a race of perfect humans. Anyone who didn’t measure up to Drax's standards must die.

Upon Bond’s prompting, Jaws realizes this, and therein forms a new wrinkle. The man-monster has fallen in love! The object of his affection is Dolly, a diminutive member of Drax’s space station staff. And, wonder of wonders, she is in love with Jaws. But what if they don’t happen to fit in with Drax’s master plan...?

Drax, unknowing and unreasoning, gives the command. Expel! Expel James Bond!

Jaws expels, alright—only it isn’t Bond or Holly Goodhead. Using his piledriver fists, he “expels” Drax’s guards into insensibility.

In numb shock, Drax grips his laser pistol. 007 flicks his wrist.

Once more, Q’s wrist pistol speaks, and the word is death. Badly wounded, Drax stumbles into the open airlock. Bond seals him inside, and sends his callous foe whirling into space.

The would-be tyrant is dead!

But his threat is not yet over. Even though Drax has been % disposed, three of his gas vials are moving slowly toward earth.

As the marines break through and the space station starts to fall apart, 007 tells Holly that those globes must be retrieved.

Spying Drax’s personal Shuttle, Moonraker 5, still docked outside the Command Satellite, the duo embarks on a daring plan: race the vials into the atmosphere and play target practice using the Shuttle’s built-in laser.

With a little help from the suddenly sympathetic Jaws, Bond and Holly set off on their mission. Behind them, the legs of the space station begin to disintegrate until nothing but the central Command Satellite is left. And inside, looking truly happy for the first time in his life, is Jaws and his true love Dolly.

After all their battles, all the wounds, all the attacks, all the damage, and all the danger, James Bond faces his exadversary with compassion and understanding, and something more.

Is it—friendship?

Then he sets off to do his job.

Holly spots the three toxic globes in succession. Bond fires the laser. Number one disappears in a blaze of light. As the Shuttle skips against the circular cover of the earth’s atmosphere, 007 zaps the second globe into nothingness.

But the third—well, number three is always the dicey one!

The Shuttle rocks violently. The cabin pressure increases.

Photo (color): A bound Bond. Drax may hold him now, but not for long!
Photo (color): 007 would just like to drop in after a wearing "chuting" match.
Photo (color): The guys in Drax's space station are having a blast! They're all blown away by Bond!
Photo (color): It's the pyramid-shaped Great Chamber, Drax's Mission    ' Control.
Photo (color): The nefarious Drax!
Photo (color): It's "T" minus 007 and counting. The Moonraker Space Shuttles blast off with Bond and Holly aboard.
Photo (color): Chop-Socky on a Drax space lackey. James Bond attacks as the beautiful Holly Goodhead lends martial support.
Photo (color): The U.S. (Space) Marines have landed, only this time in the ocean of space. They who laser last, laser best—as Drax's station in space goes to waste!
Photo (color): Bond hits the panic button and everyone hits the ceiling! With the gravity on the blink, the bad guys just hang around.
Photo (color): "I wanna hold your head!" or so the genteel Jaws seems to be saying as he reaches for—YOU!
Photo (color): The diabolical Drax is sitting pretty. He's got the machine guns, the Moonrakers, and the minions to make humankind miserable. Can even the magnificent James Bond stop him in time?
Photo (color): A Drax scientist gets all choked up over a little gas.
Photo (color): A tiny man with a tiny gun guards Jaws

The heat begins to rise. Holly is struggling with the controls. Bond is sweating. Their present altitude: 250,000 feet. The altitude at which the friction of this path of reentry will destroy the Shuttle: 200,000 feet.

The third globe is sighted. Bond fires.

And misses!

The Shuttle begins to quake in its diving, dangerous fall.

Bond fires again. And misses!

The Shuttle’s wings begin to bum.

The globe is beginning to melt!

Bond pauses an endless second. Then fires.

The third globe disappears in a flash of laser light.

The world is saved!

ONE MORE TIME

The threat is ended—a monumental task for some, but it’s all in a day’s work for 007. Understandably, Holly Goodhead puts the Moonraker 5 on automatic and snuggles into Drax’s lush living quarters. It is not business on her mind ... it is pleasure. Out of this world joy!

But unknown to Holly, there is a governmental Peeping Tom onboard. Using the Shuttle s internal television cameras, Q has established visual contact between Moonraker 5 and earth. Just as Bond settles down, the camera is activated—catching 007 getting a well-deserved spot of rest and recreation!

Summoning his British reserve, Bond humbly suggests that they head home. But Holly’s American liberation will not be so easily suppressed. Oblivious to their slightly embarrassed audience, she and her companion go one more time around the world!

Holly Goodhead in the arms of the greatest of them all—

JAMES BOND!

Photo: It takes a deadly dart to seal Drax's late.
Photo: Q and the combined governments of the world get the picture, as James Bond gets caught on "Candid Camera." Good Show!

ALBERT "CUBBY" BROCCOLI: INTERVIEWED!

Photo: Albert S. "Cubby" Broccoli, producer extraordinaire.

Albert Broccoli is a personal filmaker. Unlike many producers, he is almost always on the set, and is ever-willing to pitch in on menial chores to help his film succeed. Without Broccoli’s drive and faith in the Bond character, the series would not be the legend that it has become.

Born in Astoria, Long Island, Broccoli learned early-on the value of hard work. He took a job on his uncle’s farm and, by the age of sixteen, was driving huge truckloads of vegetables to various markets. Shortly thereafter, he began to study journalism at night-school. Then, on a fateful visit to Hollywood in 1933, he fell in love with the industry. He remained behind, landing his first job in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox. After serving in World War II, he became an actor’s agent, and then a producer. His first film was THE RED BERET in 1952, and was followed by such hits as HELL BELOW ZERO, PARATROOPER, COCKLESHELL HEROES, and others.

In 1962 he co-produced Dr. No, and the rest is history.

Though Broccoli travels the world over to shoot his motion pictures, he and his author-wife Dana make their home in California.

This interview with Mr. Broccoli was conducted by Richard Meyers while the producer was in New York promoting Moonraker.

Q: As everyone no doubt knows, the James Bond of the movies and the James Bond as written by the late Ian Fleming are totally different. How did you make the transition from printed page to celluloid?

A: Well, actually, these films are not created the way Fleming created his books. We tried to be very astute scholars of the Fleming work. I knew him, after all, and he was a lovely man. So we tried to find out what James Bond was all about. When he died it was a great loss to us — especially because he began to like what we were doing. We tried to roll with and learn from the changes. But even Fleming noted he was running out of enthusiasm doing the books. In fact, in the novel The Man With The Golden Gun, he tried to bring himself to kill off James Bond. We decided, as we went on, that changes were necessary. As we continued filming and continued writing screenplays, things developed.

Q: Roger Moore was quoted as saying several years ago that he wanted The Spy Who Loved Me to be his last Bond picture. Then he went ahead with Moonraker. Are you gearing up to search for another new Janies Bond?

A: No, I'm not making any search. If Roger wants to do it, he can. We’ll let him do it. But then again, if he doesn’t want to do it we’ll find somebody else, only because we’re forced to. As we were forced to find somebody to take Sean Connery’s place. We came up with George Lazenby, whose picture was not unsuccessful. It was a very profitable picture (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.) I have a feeling it would have been more profitable with someone else starring. Like Sean Connery. But now Roger has filled the gap so nicely we go with him. He’s a bigger money maker worldwide than any of the Bonds. People everywhere have accepted him.

Q: Do you think the character of James Bond has changed even between the last film and Moonraker?

A: Yes, I think so. It’s changed quite a lot over the years.

Q: How so?

A: Well, going back to the Sean Connery Bond . it was changed because we did not need the Sean Connery type. Bond, as we saw him was a cool type. I have said this before, but it’s true. Roger plays Bond closer to the image Fleming set in his books. Bond is light-hearted, humorous, a bit nasty, or course, and a bit rough; yet, outside that front there’s a lot of humor. I mean, we can laugh with him and at him. We can laugh when a man like Jaws picks him up with one hand and throws him across the room. We might feel sorry too, but we can enjoy seeing him getting the crap kicked out of him. But the best comparison I can think of between the two types of Bond is when you see Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart play the detective character Philip Marlowe in two movies. Dick Powell played Marlowe (in MURDER MY SWEET) the way Roger played Bond. And Marlowe would be played by Bogart (in THE BIG SLEEP) the way Sean Connery played Bond. They’re two different types, you take your pick, you pay your four dollars, and you choose which one you want to see. Or maybe both. They’re both very interesting types and they’re both very successful.

Q: Getting on to Moonraker, did you consciously attempt to emulate STAR WARS?

A: We didn’t at all. We did these space things because of the natural talent of our crew. I’m speaking of Ken Adam’s sets and Derek Meddings who is so good with special effects. The departure from Earth-bound action came because of their talents and because as we went on writing these things we saw Bond in space.

Q: And how did that idea develop?

A: We visited places like Rockwell International and NASA. As we talked to these people, the reality of what they were trying to do took shape. We attended a seminar where all these marvelously talented scientists explained space colonies to us. As all these people told us these things, we began to realize we had a story here. These scientists could put up a station like the one we have in our picture but they don’t have the money. Anyway, I am not a scientist, I’m repeating what I heard like a parrot — and maybe not too well. But basically we worked on the space station idea and developed it into a complete story. It’s not science fiction ... it’s science fact we think. We’re closer to science fact in our approach than science fiction.

Q: Your finished Bond scripts are usually wonderful combinations of humor, action, and romance. It hardly seems the work of one man.

A: Well, we’re all involved. I am very much involved. I’d like to think that I’m a very important part of this. I have been from the very beginning with my then-partner Harry Saltzman. We said what we wanted to say. And I’d like to think that I’m still a creative producer. I have the ideas and they have to be written, so we employ writers to do that. I don’t think even the greatest writer in the world can just sit down and write a James Bond story to my liking. They need our discussions. And when I say “our,” I mean not mine alone. I mean our director, our executive directors, and many others. There are many who come in only for consultation, and then there’s Ken Adam’s set designs. All are important. That’s the way we are. It is a team that does Bond. It isn’t any one of us.

Q: How great a contribution does a director make in the success of a Bond film?

A: I think a big contribution if he’s good. Lewis Gilbert is good. But he’s a Bond director, you see. I think one has to earn your reputation as a director, or a writer, or even a producer for that matter. Especially on a Bond. You can't just fit in automatically on your first Bond picture. And I think we all learn a lot every time out. Including Lewis. But the great quality Lewis has is his unflappability. The whole ceiling could be falling down and he’s just talking about a way to overcome it. He never gets nervous, he never throws up his hands and says ‘we’re in trouble.’ And sometimes we are in trouble! It’s amazing. Whereas other directors I’ve had on Bond get panicky and don’t know what to do, a director has got to find a way out. Lewis always finds his own way out.

Photo: James Bond always aims at the best in movie entertainment. And with Moonraker, 007 and producer Broccoli have hit the bullseye.

Q: How much do you think the music lends to a Bond movie?

A: Now, I don’t think anybody can score a picture like John Barry for suspense. I mean, with all due respect to Marvin Hamlisch (The Spy Who Loved Me), who I like very much, and George Martin (Live And Let Die), who I like, there’s a certain thing that Barry gives to a picture just at the right moment that helps the action, helps the suspense, helps the nature of the sequence. Whether it's a love scene or a fight scene or whatever, there’s a thing about Barry. I think he is one of the great cinema composers.

Q: You did a rather incredible thing between The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. You pushed the budget up by over ten million dollars!

A: Well, WE didn’t push the budget up. The forces of nature pushed the budget up. The forces of economy, the forces of inflation, and the incredible cost in Europe, France — England for that matter — and wherever we went! All of the prices are rising and yet we won’t diminish the quality of the picture.We cannot ever do that. Otherwise we’d stop making them. We can’t do a dirty deal on the audience. After all these years, the Bond syndrome is getting stronger instead of lessening. So now are we going to say ‘we can afford to pull back and give them less quality? ’ That ‘ no one will know the difference?’ It’s not true. The audience knows. I give them credit for that. Our public knows. They either like us or hate us, but they know the quality’s there.

Q: I heard that the opening sequence called for something like 600 sky dives in order to get everything filmed.

A: Well, I’m not sure how many exactly but it’s in the neighborhood of that to get it all together. I think one man alone took about 80 sky dives. And it’s for real. For real! When you see a man go out of a plane without a parachute, it’s really a man falling without a parachute. Its interesting, but the Bond audience is always expecting something spectacular. They are saying, ‘okay, do something you didn’t do last time, better than you did last time.’ And that’s very, very difficult.

Photo: Another example of Broccoli's dedication to the Bond series is his decision to build the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios. That way. Bond would always have the biggest stage in the world at his disposal.

Q: What would you consider the most difficult thing you did on Moonraker?

A: I think all the various flying sequences, down the waterfall, and all that was very difficult to get. We’re always under pressure. At one point we were trying to shoot scenes that would match up with shots done previously in Rio when it was 110 degrees. Right in the middle of‘pickup’ filming.it started to snow. Just needed one bright day and one good town!

Q: Given the hectic shooting schedule, did you have time for the same sort of outlandish fun that has become familiar to Bond sets?

A: Fun? Yes, we have fun, but I can’t think of any terribly amusing things at the moment. We had torrential rain in Rio, snow in London, and the first night we were ready to shoot 500 extras representing the carnival, Rio had the first bus strike in their entire history! We had no way to move these people onto locations.

Q: Think someone was trying to tell you something?

A: If we got in or out of anywhere we were lucky.

Q: So its been quite a challenge all around. Where do you see Bond going now?

A: I don’t know. We’ve been almost every place under the sun. Under the ocean, over the waves. Well, I’ve no idea.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to put in Moonraker you weren’t able to?

A: Yes, there were a lot of things we wanted to put in but we’re not going to talk about that because we want to save those things for the next J.B. They’re exciting ideas, but putting them in Moonraker would have been a bit too much. We don’t like to run too long. Two hours and ten minutes seems to be sufficient.

Q: Putting together any Bond really seems to be a major task. Would it be safe to say that you’re fairly obsessed with James Bond?

A: Close. I’m obsessed, if that’s the word, with continuing to make them because there’s a huge public out there wanting to see them made. If I stop making them and they’re still successful, somebody else has to come along and do them. We're already grooming people to take over, so I wouldn’t say it’s an obsession with me, really. I’ve been making Bonds for 18 years and I’d love to make something else. I’m planning to.

Q: One thing you can probably admit about the Bonds: no matter how big your budget, you have an exceedingly loyal crew that doesn’t have to stick with Bond time after time, but they keep coming back.

A: They like it and they're the best. And they are directly responsible for the success of the film.

Q: It shows the kind of dedication and the kind of work you get from them. I’ve noticed that the Lewis Gilbert Bonds even look more opulent than others in the series.

A: Well, he spends money (laughter).

Q: Speaking of money, what kind of business do you hope Moonraker will do in the United States?

A: I hope it will break even. I hope we do no less than break even.

Q: So you're not the kind of man who plans or plots or harbors hopes?

A: I dare not. I dare not. I hope the public will make up their minds about it. This is the truth; the public is the one who is going to decide the success or failure of the picture. They’re not seeing it because they like me, you know. But if they like the picture, you’re home free.

Q: On the other side of the coin, do you think critics have been unjustly cruel to Bond films?

A: I have no complaints. People like Bond, people hate Bond. But as long as they go to see it I don’t care one way or the other. Some of them, not all of them I’m sure, get tired of Bond's success. Their attitude seems to be, ‘Oh hell, must we say something about it?’ Or, ‘Just because it survives another bash by the critics, must we be nice to it?’ Well, I don’t know. They do what they think is right.

Q: So basically, you intend to produce Bond as long as the public enjoys it.

A: Yes. Bond will probably continue even if Moonraker doesn’t do as well as expected. But, you know, I will find it disheartening if this picture doesn't please the public tremendously. I will consider myself a very bad judge because I think it’s the best effort we’ve made so far. I mean, in my view, it's not only one hell of a good Bond picture, it’s one hell of a picture, period. Even if the hero were named Joe Smith, I think you’ll have found it a good film. And I’ve never stuck out my neck like that. It’s just one hell of a good film.

Q: It must be frightening to consider leaving the security of the 007 series to do other things.

A: Well, it’s a difficult decision, but I'm not abandoning Bond. I’m not tiring of Bond, but I am anxious to do something else. You know, people think I can only do Bond movies. I want to prove I can do something else.

Q: Anything in particular?

A: Oh, no particular thing at the moment. I have four or five different properties.

Photo: Another example of Broccoli's dedication to the Bond series is his decision to build the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios. That way. Bond would always have the biggest stage in the world at his disposal.

Q: Then how about the next Bond movie?

A: I haven’t planned a thing yet. I don’t plan to plan anything. I don’t even want to think about it! Let’s wait until Moonraker is out and flying. Then I’ll think about what’s next.

Moonraker Trivia

How many times have YOU seen Moonraker? Two? Five? A dozen? Even if you know the screenplay by heart—and it’s a good one to memorize, what with wit, action, and pathos—there is behind-the-scenes information which has hitherto been known to only a select few.

For example, did you know that in a poll taken among eight of the lovely young actresses who appear in Moonraker, only three of them said that they would want to have James Bond as their husband? Among the negative responses: “I like a quieter man” (Corinne Clery), “I’d always feel he had other things on his mind’’ (Irka Bochenko), and “Who could ever see him changing the baby’s diaper?” (Catherine Serre).

Interested in other bewitching bits of information? Try these:

ITEM: Producer Broccoli takes an almost child-like delight in tearing pages from his script as each scene is filmed and in-the-can. “The payoff,” he explains, “is when all that’s left of my script is the covers.”

ITEM: In the fifty-four days of shooting on exterior locations, the Moonraker cast and crew consumed the following: 10,800 pounds of meat, 27,000 eggs, 40,500 rolls, 6,750 pounds of potatoes, 50,250 bottles of beer and soda, and 26,000 rashers of bacon. The food was provided by “Location Caterers,” a London-based institution founded in 1948 and operated by Phil Hobbs and his staff of thirty.

ITEM: When the English and French members of the Moonraker team decided to play a game of soccer, the Britons chose Richard Kiel as their goalie. The French declared the size advantage unfair, and Kiel graciously backed out. As it turns out, the match, held in a French stadium, was won by the English by a score of seven to three.

ITEM: Did you know that Roger Moore’s wife Luisa has a special name for the suave, rough-and-tumble hero of Moonraker? It’s “Micio,” which means “Pussycat”.

ITEM: According to Space Technology Advisor Eric Burgess, “Moonraker may carry a real warning to humankind. “There are groups on earth today—given a transport system such as the space shuttle—that could establish a station in space for their own sinister ends.” His words seem to echo what Producer Broccoli has maintained since the start of production: “The premise of Moonraker is not science fiction. It’s science fact.” Sobering, no? ITEM: Tired of hearing criticisms from pretentious critics who view the James Bond films as frivolous, Roger Moore noted, “I was asked during the filming of Moonraker when I was next going to make a serious film. I replied that I thought spending around $30,000,000 on one film was pretty serious.”

ITEM: Speaking of money, during the course of shooting Moonraker, star Roger Moore also remarked, “When people tell me I must be very wealthy, I point out that one term’s school fees for my three children’s education in Switzerland costs more than I made in the first ten years of my professional career as an actor.”

ITEM: Due to the strenuous nature of filming Moonraker, Roger Moore was perpetually shadowed on the set by his personal hairdresser Mike Jones, and make-up man Paul Engelen. And with good reason. While it’s all right for Roger Moore to become mussed and untidy, that would never do for James Bond. As one press liaison noted, “He must stay ever immaculate with each hair in place—just the way every hero should look!”

ITEM: In all, Moonraker was before the cameras for twenty-eight weeks of principal photography, with thirty-nine weeks of special effects work running concurrently.

ITEM: Moonraker had its Royal World Premiere at London’s Odeon Leicester Square Theatre on June 26, 1979. It opened in the United States and Canada on June 28.

ITEM: The space station interior was constructed at France’s Epinay Studio at a cost of $500,000. Two other French studios, Boulogne and Brillancourt, also housed Moonraker sets, as did Pinewood in England.

ITEM: In all, nearly one hundred special effects experts worked to create Moonraker’s startling space sequences.

ITEM: The handful of “Bond Beauties” seen in Moonraker were chosen from over 250 attractive ladies gathered up by the Beauty Agencies of France.

ITEM: The spectacular gondola-motor launch-hovercraft seen in Moonraker was affectionately labeled by the crew as “The Bondola”.

ITEM: Some 35,000 snapshots of the action and performers in MOONRAK-ER were taken by the unit still photographer.

ITEM: According to Eric Burgess, the Moonraker crew was very picky about technical details. “Great attention was paid to set dressing of the command center. It was provided with stacks of readouts from real computers, TV displays of information that would normally be read out from a real space shuttle, and personnel wore security badges with each individual’s real photo and different levels of security clearance indicated.”

ITEM: A touch of irony! Moonraker, the production of which was based in France, is Roger Moore’s latest film-to-date. What, then, do you suppose was the name of his FIRST motion picture? You guessed it: THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, made in 1954.

ITEM: The original Ian Fleming novel Moonraker was first published in 1955, the third of the fourteen James Bond books the author would pen. The original premise, which had Sir Hugo Drax launching a nuclear missile at London, had to be updated for the motion picture.

Photo: Back stage on a Bond movie there is always time for a good joke and Roger Moore keeps everyone on their toes with his expansive good humor. Making films is difficult but it can be fun too.

Moonraker Sets and Special Effects

The word came from on high. In this case, from the 007 master-producer himself, Albert Broccoli. And the word was: “Make it better than last time!”

Since “last time” meant topping The Spy Who Loved Me, that was a mighty tall order indeed. That monumental blockbuster included the best special effects of the series to date, and the best special effects of any motion picture in recent memory:

The villain’s spider-shaped, ocean-going headquarters!

Massive, ominous supertankers with mouth-like prows!

Shanghaied nuclear submarines, and more!

The “more” also included the gigantic “007 Stage”, the largest in the world, built specifically to house the biggest interior set ever constructed, the sparkling supertanker hold complete with submarines.

Beat that? How!? Thankfully for the Moonraker crew, there is no such word as “impossible.” They had been making the impossible possible for years! And now it was time for a new challenge. A challenge for which they were ready, willing, and able. Steeling themselves, and calling upon every scrap of talent and ability at their command—far beyond those of “mortal men”—the first page of the Moonraker script was studied and they were off!

At once, things started hopping on both sides of the English Channel. By the middle of August, 1978, director Lewis Gilbert had taken his director of photography Jean Tournier and his actors and started on their whirlwind location tour of four countries: France, Italy, Brazil, and Guatemala.

At the same time, production designer Ken Adam was constructing his usual array of glorious sets on nearly every soundstage France had to offer.

Meanwhile, miniature model master Derek Meddings and his staff had set up a top secret special effects shop at England’s Pinewood Studios. Within its sedate walls, they built entire fleets of the most advanced spaceships reality had to offer.

' These three units, working in harmony, conspired to make the most thrilling entertainment of the season—any season. Moonraker had officially begun!

PARIS

The film opens with a breathtaking battle amongst the clouds. While intrepid stuntpeople—led by the experienced, extremely talented Bob Simmons, master of mayhem for many a bond film—jumped from planes, duplicating the freefalling escapades of Bond and his foes, the crew searched for a circus and an acrobatic family who could give life to the climax of 007’s first fight: Jaws’ landing amid the Big Top.

They finally settled on the amazing Traber Family. German circus performers. These high-flying relatives had already balanced bird-like above such awe-inspiring locales as Niagra Falls and Zugspitze Mountain, so tumbling in the wake of the gigantic Jaws hardly ruffled their feathers.

A slightly different problem was faced on location. In the movie, the dictatorial billionaire Drax makes his home in a glorious chateau next to a massive research center in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. But, for the film’s sake, those two establishments were filmed cities apart, thousands of miles from the West Coast of the United States!

For the labs and testing centers of Drax Industries, the Parisian National Center for Art and Culture was used. There, Bond first meets his lovely C.I.A. partner Holly Goodhead, working undercover in Drax’s employ.

Then, some eighty kilometers away, the magnificent Vaux-le-Vicomte—a lush seventeenth century mansion—was used as Drax’s American lair—a lair complete with almost priceless engravings, statues, and paintings. To show other facets of Drax’s vast estate, there was some additional filming at the nearby Guermantes Chateau.

For the next scene, where the beautiful Holly challenges 007’s stamina in the Drax centrifuge, the magic of Ken Adam was first utilized. The production designer had seen other centrifuge testing devices, but for Moonraker he decided to devise his own.

“I tried to give it an almost claw-like look, with a frightening atmosphere. It makes for a very exciting scene,” Mr. Adam says.

Photo: The "Bondola" takes form in the harbor just off St. Mark's Square. With a flick of a switch, the swift ship turns from a speedboat to a hovercraft!

He built it in eight weeks. Lewis Gilbert filmed on it for only two days, and then it gone! Incredible as it may seem, the magnificent centrifuge was but a minor set in comparison with the wonders to come!

Speaking of which, to give just an example of the care lavished on even the most trivial aspects of a 007 production, a short scene near the end of the film pictures the bedroom of a Russian general. For this set alone—which is on screen for mere seconds—art directors Max Douy and Charles Bishop painstakingly copied pictures of Catherine the Great’s bed as well as a solid silver-and-gold antique chest housed in a Leningrad museum. If these aren’t “special” special effects, we don’t know what are!

VENICE WHEN IT'S BREAKING

The next act of 007 prestidigitation appears in Venice, that romantic Italian town filled with canals, calm waters, and complacent tourists. But when Moonraker arrived, the quiet waters were stirred by incredible goings-on!

To film the soggy chase between Bond and a bunch of killers, three weeks of high-powered filming was necessary. Ken Adam worked his wonders once again by designing the “Bondola,” that great gondola-speedboat-hovercraft used by our hero. Specially built for the production, the graceful craft alarmed many sightseers when it suddenly rose from the water and drifted across St. Marks Square!

Effort of another kind was needed to give dimension to the scenes within the Venini Glass Works. The starting point for the marathon fight between Drax’s oriental minion Chang and 007, it was necessary for the two to stumble and crash into row after row of priceless crystal sculptures, destroying reams of them in the process.

Actually, those graceful pieces of art were created by British experts David Bayham and Roy Seers, who worked feverishly for months in a Paris workshop. Using a formula called Dow’s Resin—which is so temperamental that it cracks and breaks half the time it is handled, even by professionals—the designing duo worked up more than six hundred art objects to be destroyed by Bond and his opponent.

The climax of this selfsame fight is Chang’s fatal plunge from the famous St. Marks Clock Tower. The script called for the feisty villain to smash through the glass clock face. Nor surprisingly, Italian officials weren’t too hot on that idea! Thankfully, Ken Adam wasn’t too hot on the actual clock either. “It was not a very interesting interior from a filmic point of view,” he remembers. So he made it all a set, basically faithful to the original but flavored with his own sense of design. It was constructed complete with an actual antique clock mechanism imported from Strasborg.

The final shot of the battle, wherein Chang goes through the face, was filmed utilizing a special substance known as sugar glass, although his deadly drop to the street was actually filmed at the historical landmark. According to on-the-scene reports, director Gilbert was thus able to record on film the actual, very shocked expressions of many unprepared witnesses!

It is safe to say that Venice may never again be the same!

BRAZIL AND BOND

On January 4, 1979, the production descended on Rio de J aneiro. And when we say descended, we mean descended! Twenty truckloads of equipment, over two hundred extras and crew members, and other odds-and-ends landed even before Roger Moore arrived to do some descending of his own.

The star’s descent was far and away the most perilous of them all, in that Bond was required to slide down a cable car wire from the 1,230 foot summit of Sugar Loaf Mountain!

Not surprisingly, the production demanded that a stunt actor handle the actual dangling, which one did, much to the amazement of even producer Broccoli himself. “We begged him to at least have a wire supporting him,” Broccoli recalls, “but the stuntman said no, the wire would be in his way. So he ‘slips’ and grabs onto the car—not with two hands, which is what he was supposed to do, but with one! We were all scared to death watching him.” However, most viewers will agree that every ounce of sweat, every inch of dedication shows on the screen.

Since the stunt actor was a master of his craft, 007 ‘lived’ to perform his next breathtaking exploit. Specifically, it concerned the awe-inspiring Iguacu Falls, where Bond hang-glides away from three boats filled with killers, then tracks a seductively draped beauty across the jungle.

This one sequence was not only filmed on location, but in three other unrelated locales as well! To create the proper effect, filming jumped from the falls to the Brazil-Argentina border to the Mayan city of Tikal in North Guatemala, then all the way back to the outskirts of Paris.

And all of this, every scene previously mentioned, every stunt, every foot of film, every extra effort, all leads to the wildest 007 finale ever conceived. Bond hops from place to place to root out Drax’s evil plot. A plot that leads him far, FAR out!

Photo: Jaws pulls his ripcord in vain, but we see a rare special effects shot of a rear screen projection: one of the very few used in Moonraker's incredible pre-credit sky-diving sequence!

Photo: Roger Moore takes a stab at the camera, all in the name of action. Later, this shot will be edited with other fight footage to create a pulse pounding scene on screen.

Photo: The sleek Q-Craft not only comes complete with explosive mines and torpedoes, but converts into a sky-flying hang-glider as well.

OF SPACE STATIONS AND SPACE SHUTTLES

The time had come. After months of winging around the world, capturing on film the greatest action scenes ever staged, the crew settled down to put together the most spectacular sequence of all: an exactingly, painstakingly researched, scientifically accurate, eye-filling spectacle of a fight whose resolution will determine the fate of the world—a fight which takes place in orbit just beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

From the start of production, Derek Meddings and his crew had been working with Moonraker Shuttle models that measured from mere centimeters to many meters long. These miniature Space Shuttle exteriors are almost identical to the NASA Shuttle now being final-tested for a launching within the next few months.

In addition, the colossal inside of the “007 Stage” was swathed in black curtains so that realistic star fields could be created behind the amazing Space Station designed by Ken Adam. All of this was carefully overviewed by Moonraker“Space Consultant” Eric Burgess, cofounder of the British Interplanetary Society and author of fifteen books on the subject of space and technology.

Besides the various Shuttle models, there was also Ken Adam’s designs for both the interior and exterior of Drax’s ultimate dream: the Station in Space.

The exterior model, measuring a full fourteen feet across and suspended from the high ceiling of the 007 Stage, spent most of its screen life under the scrutiny of Derek Meddings’ special effects cameras. Winding, turning, slowly arcing, and just hovering majestically, its ethereal beauty was captured on film by Meddings’ crew.

The interiors of the station were something else again. It all started with Ken Adam’s initial concept drawing. Once that was agreed upon, and enough room was found to house it at a French studio, Adam went ahead and built an “art dimensional model,” to see what the set would look like in three dimensions. Once he and his crew had developed the design and model to its conclusion, this was transferred to building plans and construction was begun.

Easier planned than put up! The final product seen on the screen was the sum total of the contribution of 220 workers, all of whom spent eight weeks just BUILDING! That’s a numbing sum of 222,000 hours, which is roughly equivalent to one person’s entire lifetime!

When complete, the Command Satellite measured 108 feet wide, forty-seven feet high, and was tri-leveled, including a space telescope and a laser cannon. To put it up, the set construction workers used up one hundred tons of metal, two tons of nails, and ten thousand feet of wood!

All in all, there was enough timber employed to build forty homes. The electronic equipment utilized could equip six Concorde SSTs, and the amount of electricity consumed could illuminate a house for a century. (Nor did the precision work stop after photography had been completed! The magnificent set had to be knocked down, and in typical Bond fashion destruction was worked by explosives—$20,000 worth, planted over a period of weeks. But we get ahead of ourselves—)

What went on in this space set has already become one of the most talked-about sequences in recent film history. James Bond takes on Drax, while marines from earth handle the madman’s minions. Once again, the statistics become staggering.

“To film the battle in space,” Eric Burgess explains, “the visual effects camera-person, Paul Wilson, used ninety-six incandescent ten-watt lamps. The 007 Stage was used, which is big enough to have mists form within its walls! Sixty thousand dollars of black velvet shrouded the Pinewood stages. Also floors, steps, and nearly everything else was painted black to prevent scattered light. In space fantasies, the robots and aliens can do almost anything and get away with it. But Moonraker's astronauts had to behave like the real-life astronauts we have seen on our TVs.”

No effort was spared to guarantee this realism. Even the Moonraker Shuttle countdowns used in the film are based on actual NASA countdowns for the real Space Shuttle. Every aspect of War in Space was considered and dealt with, even down to the sticky problem of sound in space.

“A concession was made to audience expectation,” Burgess admits. ‘‘Although sound cannot be transmitted through the vacuum of space, action without sound would seem very slow and tedious. It was decided, therefore, to use sound effects as well as a musical soundtrack.”

But no such concession was made in the realism depicted elsewhere. Real-life laser beams were integrated with models and optically produced lasers. These simulated beams were painstakingly inserted into the film frame-by-frame. This completed, there was only the “big boom” left to be worked.

Photo: It's a set-up! The collected cast and crew take a break amid just one of Jen Adam's gigantic sets. This "Command Satellite" set was the biggest and most expensive Moonraker had to offer.

Experts in demolition, special effects, and stunts were gathered on the Command Satellite set to make certain that the brutal explosions, peppered with one-on-one human activity, were sufficiently planned so that no one was hurt nor control over the proceedings ever surrendered. Even so, mistakes will happen ... as producer Broccoli aptly illustrates.

“We had one fire on a sound stage even before we built anything,” he explains, “and we lost some time and money there. And then one of the space stations caught fire while we were trying to blow it up. And then after that was put out, I suggested we post a guard to make sure another fire didn’t start during the night. They said, ‘Yes, okay.’ And sure enough, the bloody thing caught fire in the middle of the night. Almost burned down again . . . with our set in it!” Merrily thereafter, the blasts rolled along, thrilling both cast and crew alike. But back at Pinewood, Derek Meddings did not have the luxury of simply planting explosives and blowing his models sky-high. His problem was twofold. First, he was working with miniature sets, which called for miniature explosions to keep things in scale. And second, a high-powered blast in space looks different than a high powered blast inside a studio!

“Explosions in space are difficult to simulate,” Mr. Burgess agrees. “Special effect explosions have been perfected, but these explosions usually produce smoke which rises—and they often give rise to flames, both of which are unrealistic and unwanted in space scenes.

“So Derek Meddings used several new techniques. These included a frame-by-frame expanding light shell technique and the use of chemical bombs dropped from high towers at night and shot from below. Spacemen and spacecraft were also impacted by plastic shells that exploded into expanding balls of glittering debris. These ‘shells’ were fired from specially designed automatic rifles and a machine gun!” After Drax’s space station had been exploded into eternity, there was still the final laser sequence to film. The optical effects people went to work, using the laser techniques described above and making it possible for Bond to shoot down Drax’s death-dealing globes.

Photo: It's a set-up! The collected cast and crew take a break amid just one of Ken Adam's gigantic sets. This "Command Satellite" set was the biggest and most expensive Moonraker had to offer.

And with one of Derek Meddings’ model Moonrakers drifting slowly into an optically created rising sun, around a slowly revolving mockup of earth, we once again bid adieu to the mighty, magnificent James Bond, secret agent 007.

Roger Moore finished his work by quipping wittily, “Back to the labour exchange,” while director Lewis Gilbert admitted to being “totally exhausted.’’

And why not? As Eric Burgess puts it, “All our problems were compounded because the model shots had to be integrated with live action shots in full scale sections of the space structures. Model shooting took place at Pinewood in England. Full scale sets were in France.

“This required continuous contact between London and Paris, and, indeed, many scenes in the film ultimately turned out to be a combination of model shots, live action on full scale sets, location shooting, front and back projection with models, and front and back projection with live actors and actresses.”

(Note: These last two processes involve inserting models or performers into the action by photographing them before screens on which prefilmed action is projected.)

While we have praised the model, set, and optical crews, let us not forget the rest of the physical labor which helped make Moonraker the mind-boggling spectacle it is! The engineers who built the Q-Craft and the incredible gadgets employed by Bond and Holly. The brisk editing and tremendous sound work, sound effects, and post-production dubbing. The ever-wonderful opening title sequence devised and implemented by Maurice Binder with his usual panache. Even the stylish costumes and makeup.

The final price tag for all this rampant genius? Over twenty-five million dollars. And it is all there for you to see at any one of the over six hundred theatres at which Moonraker is playing nationwide. We think you’ll agree that every penny was worth it.

Hey, James Bond, Albert Broccoli, and Company! How the heck are you going to top this one ... next time?

Photo: James Bond, alias secret agent 007, examines Q's neatest little device. Seemingly just a fashionable wrist-band, it doubles as a dart gun, capable of being fired with a flick of the wrist. Q even supplies the secret agent with ten armor-piercing projectiles as well as ten poison dipped tips, each able to kill in thirty seconds. Again and again, 007 is able to use them just in the nick of time. But that is not the only small gadget Moonraker has to offer. A hypodermic ballpoint pen, a cigarette lighter that doubles as a camera, and a cigarette case that doubles as an X-ray machine also prove to be very handy.

AUTOGRAPHS

The fanciful folk who bring you this Moonraker Magazine are some of the same people who produce the first and best genre publication, FAMOUS MONSTERS. This twenty-one year old ground-breaker is greatly loved, so the stars of the new 007 epic have a personal message for their faithful Bond watchers and "FM" readers.

THE FILMMAKERS

The chief creative talents behind one of the biggest hits in recent film history:

LEWIS GILBERT

DIRECTOR Lewis Gilbert, who has made thirty films in as many years, brings to Moonraker the greatest qualifications imaginable: he had previously helmed You Only Live Twice as well as the last and most successful picture in the series The Spy Who Loved Me. How does he feel about his third and most dramatic tilt with the immortal secret agent? He is both thrilled and exhausted—not to mention being somewhat staggered by the size of the production. “When I first directed films,” says he, 111 used to make an entire feature for less than the Moonraker telephone bill!” Born in London in 1320, Gilbert’s first brush with the industry was as a child actor in silent films, to which he brought a background steeped in vaudeville. Moving behind the camera, he later became b third assistant director, rising to full directorship in 1945 on THE LITTLE BALLERINA. Among his most popular non-Bond productions are ALFIE, DAMN THE DEFIANT, and SINK THE BISMARK. Gilbert lives in Monaco with his wife, former actress Hylda Lawrence. They have two sons, John [35] and Stephen [25).

Photo: Lewis Gilbert (above) really sinks his teeth into directing, showing Jaws the way to sink his metal molars into a steel cable.

KEN ADAM

PRODUCTION DESIGNER Ken Adam reveals that his spectacular sets for Moonraker came about as most of his ideas develop: “I just start to scribble and hope that something happens.” What “happens” is pure movie magic, sets like the three-tiered space station interior which take the breath away. He has seven James Bond films to his credit—including Dr. No— of which Moonraker is inarguably the most impressive.

Born in Berlin in 1921, Adam studied architecture at London University, later working for an engineering firm. After serving as an RAF pilot during WWII, he was assistant art director for seven films, including the action classic CAPTAIN HORATIO HORN-BLOWER, becoming a full-fledged art director on AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. Soon thereafter he graduated to production designer and has, to his credit, such pictures as DR. STRANGELOVE, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, and BARRY LYNDON—for which he won an Oscar. Adam has recently begun doing design work for opera, of which he hopes to do more. This man, who turns doodles to legend, lives in London with his wife Letizia.

JOHN BARRY

COMPOSER John Barry, who wrote the scores for eight Bond films, was born in York, England in 1933. His career seemed predestined: he began taking music lessons at the age of nine, concurrently helping to run the eight movie theatres owned by his father. After serving in dance and military bands, the young man formed the John Barry Seven in the mid-fifties, and composed his first film score, for BEAT GIRL, in 1959. In addition to the Bond pictures, Barry has scored KING RAT, KING KONG, THE DEEP, and MIDNIGHT COWBOY, both THE LION IN WINTER and BORN FREE have won him Academy Awards. Barry describes the Moonraker score as having a "larger, more symphonic style in terms of orchestration” than any other in the Bond series.

JEAN TOURNIER

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jean Tournier was born in the French town of Toulon in 1926. After studying at the School of Photography in Paris from 1948-1950, he went to work as an assistant cameraperson. He became a director of photography in 1959. In addition to Moonraker, his credits include LES MISERABLES and THE TRAIN.

ERIC BURGESS

SPECIAL SPACE ADVISOR Eric Burgess had one of the most critical jobs on Moonraker: his assignment was to see that everything was authentic looking. To this end he worked in close conjunction with Ken Adam as well as the special effects team at England’s Pinewood studios. As Burgess points out, while “the Bond films have always stepped slightly ahead of technology,” today’s filmgoer is too “sophisticated for a filmmaker to stint on facts. He applauds producer Cubby Broccoli’s insistence on realism, and worked hard to achieve it. Born in Manchester, England in 1920, Burgess is proficient in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and has written fifteen books on these subjects.

CHRISTOPHER WOOD

SCREENWRITER Christopher Wood says of his work on Moonraker, “James Bond may have a Licence To Kill, but I have the license to let my imagination run wild.” And wild it runs in Wood’s second Bond screenplay, the first one having been The Spy Who Loved Me, co-authored with Richard Maibaum. Born in South London in 1936, Wood graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Economics and Law. After a stint in the army, he became a copywriter for a London advertising agency. Then, one day, he decided to write a series of novels based on the theme of personal “Confessions11. These proved to be so successful that Wood quit his job to settle in a French farmhouse some one hundred miles from Bordeaux, and spend his time writing. He has now penned over forty books, many of them under pseudonyms such as Rosie Dixon and Timothy Lea. Among these, not surprisingly, are novelizations of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Wood, along with his wife and three children, still lives in the farmhouse, which he has dubbed “the ruin.”

THE BOND BOMBSHELLS

An important and not unpleasurable part of any James Bond film is the procession of 007’s lovely and loving ladies. Whether they’re falling head-over-heels for the suave secret agent — literally, in the weightlessness of MOONEAKER’s space settings — or trying to do him in they provide breath and breadth to the high velocity adventures.

Regarding this hallowed Bondian tradition, femme star Lois Chiles admitted that when she accepted the part of Holly Goodhead, “I knew that whatever else the role might require that I bare, it would not be my soul.” And while feminists might argue that James Bond uses women as sex objects, the feeling is both mutual and done in the name of fun!

Topping the list of Moonraker’s starring — and, as Lewis Gilbert describes them, “uplifting”—starlets is Lizzie Warville.

Twenty-one years of age, this top model plays the mistress to the Russian General Gogol (Walter Gotell).

“It’s not a very big part,” Lizzie realizes, “but it’s a start in acting. I mean, even Catherine the Great had to start somewhere, didn’t she?”

Another prominent young actress is twenty-eight year old former stewardess Blanche Ravalec. A short, blonde, blue-eyed lass, she was happy to play Jaws’ girl friend Dolly — just as long as he didn’t try to give her a hickey.

Rounding out the roster of ravishing damoiselles are nineteen year old Polish lovely Irka Bockenko, who plays the “Blonde Beauty,” twenty-seven year old Californian Anne Lonnberg as the “Museum Guide,” and the al luring lineup known as “Drax’s Girls”: twenty-two year old model Christina Hui; twenty-three year old Beatrice Libert, a former Miss Belgium; Caribbean-born Nicaise Jean Louis; red-haired Francoise Gayat from Paris; twenty-five year old Chichinou Kaeppler; and ex-medical student Catherine Serre.

With such a selection of femininity lurking just beyond our atmosphere, who can blame Mr. Bond for taking to orbit?

Photo: A group like this even could make a Mayan Sphinx smile! It's the glorious, glowing, glossy, graceful, glimmering, glittering, gals of Moonraker! From the left, Chichinou Kaeppler, Francoise Gayat, Anne Lonnberg, Nicaise Jean Louis, Beatrice Libert, Catherine Serre, Christina Hui and the gorgeous Irka Bochenko (at right).

THE END ...BUT JAMES BOND WILL BE BACK IN-“For Your Eyes Only”

Photo: A Bond a day keeps the danger away—and even pretty stewardesses cannot resist a little bussing in a private plane.

Photo: Bond has a little time on his hands ... not to mention on the floor and all over St. Mark's Square. Do not ask for whom the clock chimes. It chimes for Chang!

Photo: The villains veer after Bond at 'break-boat' speed, giving lolling lovers a quick slice of spy life. A river rendezvous becomes a sinking, soggy experience!

SPACE NOW BELONGS TO 007

Moonraker The most exciting JAMES BOND thriller ever!

Moonraker '79 MAGAZINE CREATED & PUBLISHED BY WARREN PUBLISHING COMPANY, A DIVISION OF WARREN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION. EDITORIAL, BUSINESS & SUBSCRIPTION OFFICES AT 145 E. 32ND STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016

PRINTED IN U.S.A. COPYRIGHT © EON PRODUCTIONS LTD. GLIDROSE PUBLICATIONS LTD. 1979. All PHOTOS RELATING TO THE MOTION PICTURE Moonraker ARE COPYRIGHTED © 1979 BY UNITED ARTISTS CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

‘Moonraker’ IS THE LEAST SEXIST, MOST LOVABLE 007, THANKS TO ROGER MOORE, LOIS CHILES & JAWS

It was the only exotic locale left unplumbed in 10 previous movies. So James Bond reaches the climactic clinch of the 11th, Moonraker, weightless in outer space. Sure the wooing, like the film itself, has to be rated ZG (zero gravity), but as their orbits entwine, Holly Goodhead, his latest lovely, sighs: “Take me around the world one more time, James." Judging from the box office ($39 million the first month), Holly is speaking for movie fans everywhere. Moonraker is going to be the biggest Bond ever.

Agent 007 apparently doesn't get older, just suaver and more commercial—goons, gadgets, girls, excruciating double entendres and all. But inflation, including that of audience expectations, may make Moonraker less profitable than some of its lower-grossing predecessors. The original, Dr. No, was shot for a mere $1 million in 1962. Moonraker cost $30 million. “I once made entire movies for less than the phone bills on this one, ” moaned producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. In any case, a 12th Bond, For Your Eyes Only, is in the works. “The fantasy, ” beams Broccoli, “continues. ”

The only element that may be aging is Roger Moore, who at 51 has weathered four 007 epics. That levitating love scene in Moonraker was done with wires, and the lady, Lois Chiles, tattles: “Poor Roger was trying to look amorous when in fact he was terribly miserable.” Even he admits: “I’m always amazed when I read the obituary column that I’m not mentioned.” Roger survived Moonraker with nothing worse than football knee from scrambling atop the Rio funicular with Chiles (“She was very brave—and shortsighted, which helps”). His closest call came in The Man With The Golden Gun, when he and Britt Ekland almost detonated on an island in the Gulf of Siam. “They always record things like that with five cameras,” deadpans Moore. “In case you’re killed they’ve got enough for a snuff movie.”

With a seven-figure salary plus percentage (he won’t be more precise, because “It’s vulgar, like discussing your sex life”), Moore can stand the heat. He’s grateful, though, that invidious comparisons to predecessor Sean Connery are no longer inevitable. Only his son Christian, 5, is still confused. “That’s you, but you’ve got a mask on,” he told his father while watching a videotape of the original 007. (Ironically, Connery, who bowed out fearing typecasting in 1971, is now being sued for trying to shoot a James Bond of his own.) Asked about the difference between them, Moore shrugs: “Some people prefer Olivier’s Hamlet, and some Gielgud’s.”

The only child of a London bobby, Roger was variously a cartoonist, dishwasher, army officer, student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and model. He made his film debut in a Caesar and Cleopatra crowd scene in 1946. Then, after a brief Broadway career (he closed in one night), Moore went to Hollywood as a contract actor. While shooting an “awful” film called The Rape of the Sabines in Italy, Moore (divorced from skater Doorn Van Steyn and separated from singer Dorothy Squires) met actress Luisa Mattioli, now 43. She moved in and gave birth to Deborah, now 16, and Jeffrey, 13, before they made it legal eight years later in 1969. Along the way Moore has made 23 movies and a string of TV series, including The Saint.

Roger’s Bondage is nonexclusive, and he’s mulling Broccoli’s next.

“Someday I’ll be too old,” he concedes. Eventually Moore wants to direct, as he often did on The Saint. (A former European exec for Brut Productions, he helped put together A Touch of Class.) Roger paints, plays guitar “rather badly” and keeps up an exercise regimen “every morning—well, most every morning.” He used to play roulette, but cracks, “I retired from the tables —shaken, but not stirred.”

The Moores pal around with the Gregory Pecks and Kirk Douglases, while jetting between houses in the South of France, Italy and Switzerland.

“I’m never quite sure where the bathroom is,” he claims. “If I ever settle down, three airlines are going to go broke.”

Photo: Moore and third wife Luisa have clicked for 18 years. Of earlier tries, he says: “Do you like talking about peritonitis?”
Photo: Chiles is not just another pretty object for Moore in Moonraker. Otherwise the formula that pulled $1.5 billion is unchanged.
Photo: Bearded for a role, Roger Moore just shaved a la Reynolds on a TV talk show. He swigs coffee despite insomnia.

007 faces a foxy feminist: Lois Chiles

Lois Chiles also has no fear of flying. Director Lewis Gilbert recalled her roles with Robert Redford in The Way We Were and The Great Gatsby when he sat next to her on a plane, and later asked her to test for Moonraker. No matter that the likes of Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve and Raquel Welch have spurned offers to play Bond girls. “I needed the work, I needed the money and I needed the experience,” says Chiles, 32. And while Bond is as chauvinist as ever, scientist/CIA agent Holly Goodhead (“Can you believe that name?” asks Lois) is his brainiest bedmate to date. “This time they made her more of a partner,” she says.

Photo: While her steady, Eagle Don Henley, recorded in Miami, Chiles made the premiere with a rival, her dad, Clay.

At first that troubled Moore, who harrumphs: “I’m a little older and more experienced, so I think I can push the actresses around a little. The trouble is, they push back, most of them. Bloody women’s lib!” Lois was so serious about her part that Roger began calling her “Sarah Bernhardt Chiles.” There was another reason Chiles poured herself into her work: Her younger brother, Clay, was suffering from Hodgkin’s disease. Lois shuttled from L.A. to Texas to give him blood until he died two months ago at 25. “Before, I would get in a state over something at the cleaner’s,” she says. “Those things don’t bother me now. If you accept that at any time you could die, it makes each day special.” Daughter of an oilman from Alice, Texas, Lois grew up a “culturally deprived tomboy: I wanted to be a wild black stallion that nobody could ride.” After attending the University of Texas (Farrah Fawcett was then “the campus beauty”), Chiles left for New York and fell into modeling when Glamour spotted her in Finch College’s cafeteria. Chanel, Revlon and Clairol ads let her study with Sandy Meisner.

“I told Roger, ‘You’re such a misogynist,’ ” reports Chiles, “and he said, ‘What’s that?’ ” Her answer: “You love women but don’t really like them.”

A year ago Chiles met Don Henley, 32, the drummer with the Eagles, in her exercise class. “My image of musicians,” remembers Lois, “was of groupies, tearing up airplanes and trashing hotels. That was the last thing I wanted to get involved with.” But she did. She doesn’t tour with the group (“Concerts are interesting the first few times”), though she and her dog, Ursula, guested at his Holmby Hills manse before finding their own cottage last month in Santa Monica. “I love him very much,” she says, but has no plans for marriage or children. When they’re together Chiles lets Henley cook. “I hate roles in relationships,” notes Lois. “I like roles if you’re being paid.”

Stardom—which she believes “is elevated to undeserved importance” —Chiles can do without. “It’s fun to be at the Plaza and whisked off in a limousine, but I’d hate to wake up at 60 and find I’m a dull person.”

Richard Kiel: his bite is worse than his bark

According to Broccoli’s Law, no starring sex object or villain ever comes back for a second shot in the series. Richard “Jaws” Kiel, 39, wasn’t even invited at first to attend the premiere of his Bond debut, The Spy Who Loved Me. But the fans so resoundingly took to the 7'2", 315-pound character that the producer realized a good thing when he was dwarfed by it. This outing, Jaws got a love interest and even speaks for the first time: four words to his lady. There was a price for his expanded role: He could wear the cobalt steel dentures for only three minutes and still would end up sick to his stomach.

“Every actor wants to stand out,” drawls Kiel (rhymes with zeal), but being typed into hulking but small parts has troubled him. He longs to play Othello or a “Dustin Hoffman-type role. I’m an intelligent and sensitive person,” he protests. “I’ve had a lot of directors who are surprised I can even walk.” Broccoli knows better, calling Richard “an intelligent, gentle man and a very good actor, particularly in Chaplinesque situations.”

Born in Michigan, Kiel grew up and up in East Los Angeles, where his father owned an appliance store. Some family members were tall, but “when I was 12 my father got slightly concerned because I started to wear all his clothes. That lasted for about a month,” he chuckles. Richard was 6'7" by age 14. “Bashful” in high school, he reports that “the only thing I knew about girls was that they danced backward.”

He drifted as a washing machine repairman, cemetery plot salesman (“That was better than studying acting in New York”), radio school teacher and bouncer until 1960, when he picked up $500 as a brawler on TV’s Klondike series. Kiel says his debut was “terrible,” but he got work as a TV heavy until 1968, when he found he could make more money selling cars and then real estate.

Kiel returned to the screen for 1974’s The Longest Yard, where Burt Reynolds, a mentor to so many actors, told him, “Hang in there.” On location in Georgia, the divorced Kiel also met high school student Diane Rogers, 16 years younger and 25 inches shorter than he. “It was just boom,” he recalls. They were married a year later. “I’m sure that one of the things that attracts her to me is that she feels safe at night.”

The Kiels now include Richard George, 4½, Jennifer, 2½, and Bennett, 9 months, and live in Covina, an unchic L.A. suburb. They have a second place: not a Malibu beach house but a mobile home in the desert. “Diane’s the kind of gal who could be happy if we lived in a tin shack as long as we could pay the light bill,” he says. Their pleasures are cycling, horseback riding, watching TV and vanning. Another Kiel movie, “a spaghetti Star Wars" called The Humanoid, is already out abroad, and he has formed a production company to seek out more serious properties. “My motto,” he says, “is ‘Think small.’ ”

Fortunately, though, for Kiel, the Cubby Broccolis of this world never do.

Photo: “I’d rather sell real estate than just be used as a prop,” says Kiel, here at the Moonraker opening with wife Diane.
Photo: “The Hollywood thing is bull,” says Kiel, playing suburban daddy to Bennett. “I’m just the big guy living down the street.”

copyright © 1979 Time Inc. All rights reserved. People Weekly is a registered trademark of Time Incorporated.

[Source: People Weekly August 13, 1979, P88-92]

Moonraker

A cloak-and-dagger tale that borders on space opera— and the biggest Bond yet!

By BOB MARTIN

The opening scenes in the newest James Bond film feature the sterling effects photography of Derek Meddings, as a NASA space shuttle is hijacked in mid-air. It’s this brief and spectacular sequence that announces that, no matter how many James Bond pictures you’ve seen, Moonraker holds more than a few surprises.

In Moonraker, the eleventh film of the series based on the works of the late Ian Fleming, Bond (Roger Moore, in his fourth appearance as the British super-agent) is given a particularly sensitive assignment. The American space shuttle, Moonraker, briefly on loan to the British, has been stolen. The U.S. government is understandably upset, and Britain’s top-secret operative, 007, has but one imperative—to find the missing shuttle.

Learning that the craft had been manufactured in California by an American multi-millionaire with an unreasoning passion for the exploration of space, Agent 007 takes the very next flight to Los Angeles. Upon his arrival, he is guided to the estate of Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) by the beautiful Sylvie Dufour (Corinne Clery), a pilot in the service of the Drax Corporation.

As the Drax helicopter approaches the vast estate, Bond is treated to a series of impressive sights—the industrial complex where the shuttles are manufactured, an elaborate French chateau which is the home of Hugo Drax, and an astronaut crew, obviously chosen for their physical perfection, training on the grounds of the estate.

Photos: Above: From this orbiting den of iniquity, a scheme is launched that could change the destiny of humanity. The space station model is approximately 13' in diameter. The Moonraker models ranged widely in size, including a 5' model used for lift-offs and two 6' models. Right: Shuttle stowaways Bond and Holly entering the station in the uniform of the Drax astronautical team.

As in all Bond films, 007 first encounters the villain in his own den, where Drax amuses himself by playing Chopin on his grand piano, flanked by his two vicious guard dogs. After the meeting, in which a polite formality thinly disguises their mutual antipathy, Bond is sent to tour the grounds with the attractive and erudite Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), while Drax lives up to his villainous manner by dispatching henchman Chang (Toshiro Suga) to deal with “Mister Bond.” Needless to say, repeated attempts on Bond’s life don’t even affect his British calm or his sense of humor. That evening, as the others sleep, Bond enlists Sylvie DuFour in his cause and obtains access to some cryptic diagrams from Drax’s safe.

The Drax papers lead Bond to Venice, Italy, where he is surprised by the presence of Dr. Goodhead. Holly and Bond are soon allied, as the dimensions of Drax’s destroy-the-world-to-save-it scheme are unravelled. After a failed attempt to nip the forces of evil in the bud, the trail leads Bond to Rio de Janeiro, to Drax’s space complex hidden in the Central American jungle, and finally to outer space.

That’s the story—without giving away any of Moonraker''s most exciting sequences. Even Richard Kiel, in a repeat performance of his Jaws role from The Spy Who Loved Me, has a few surprises for Bond followers as he reaches a new stage in the history of his malevolence. Bond and his various foes and amours remain in the Fleming mold (after all, why tamper with success?), but new scope is brought to the 007 legend via the ever-present scientific hardware, fantastic sets and, most of all, the spectacular special effects. Though some filmgoers might find the greatest spectaclein the 16-member astronautical crew, men and women cast from the portfolios of Europe’s top modeling agencies, SF fans will be ogling Ken Adam’s sets as they wait with bated breath for the film’s shattering finale. In the closing sequences, Bond, in the company of a couple of surprise allies, meets Drax and his henchmen in a cataclysmic laser battle in space orbit.

As can now be seen in some of the Moonraker trailers featuring space battle scenes and a brief view of Drax’s orbiting space station, these effects are fantastic indeed, certainly up to the high standards set by Meddings in his past achievements —SFX for various Gerry Anderson productions, including Space: 1999, as well as the last Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, and his Oscar-winning effects for Superman— The Movie.

Moonraker is the first adventure film designed to please the non-SF filmgoer as well as the fans of space fantasy, and its multi-million-dollar budget, as well as the track record of the past Albert Broccoli-produced Bond films, assures a healthy box office. But whether this means a new trend toward SF elements in mainstream films won’t clearly be seen until long after Moonraker takes off.

Photos: Above: One of Ken Adam’s most elaborate sets, Drax ground control, under construction at Pinewood Studios. Below: Unaware of Bond’s presence in the station, Drax prepares to implement his design of conquest.

Moonraker

CAST & CREDITS

A United Artists film. 1979. Color. An Albert R. Broccoli Production. Director: Lewis Gilbert. Executive Producer: Michael Wilson. Associate Producer: William Cartlidge. Original Screenplay: Christopher Wood. Production Designer: Ken Adam. Visual Effects Supervisor: Derek Meddings. Director of Photography: Jean Tournier. Music composed by: John Barry. Technical Consultants: Eric Burgess and Harry Lang. Stunt Arranger: Bob Simmons. Makeup: Monique Archambault, Paul Engelen and Pierre Vade. Based on the book Moonraker by Ian Fleming.

James Bond............Roger Moore
Holly Goodhead........Lois Chiles
Drax.............Michael Lonsdale
Jaws.................Richard Kiel
Ms. Defour..........Corinne Clery
Chang................Toshiro Suga
M.....................Bernard Lee
Q................Desmond Llewelyn
Moneypenny...........Lois Maxwell
Frederek Gray.......Geoffrey Keen

Photos: Top: Bond faces Drax henchman Chang in a martial arts duel in an Italian glassworks museum. Center: Hollywood muscleman Richard Kiel appears in a return engagement as the unstoppable Jaws. Bottom: No harnesses or nets were used for this particular stunt, one of many arranged by stunt veteran Bob Simmons.

Starlog is a registered trademark of O'Quinn Studios, Inc. and Starlog Magazine content is © 1976-2009 O'Quinn Studios, Inc. All rights reserved. Moonraker© 1979 Danjaq LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved.

[Source: Starlog #24, July 1979, P.82-85]

The Magic of 'Moonraker'

A lavish budget and a tempered crew of film professionals helped to create the spectacle of the biggest Bond ever!

When I first directed films,” says director Lewis Gilbert, “I used to make an entire feature for less than the Moonraker telephone bill.” The budget for the latest James Bond adventure totaled more than $25 million—money well invested, judging by the army of Bond fans now storming box offices across the country. A major part of that budget was expended on the film’s SFX, some of which are seen in the photos on these pages.

Top: One sequence calls for the simplest of mechanical effects—a prop snake, convincingly manipulated by Roger Moore. Above: The $500,000 set of Drax’s orbital space center is demolished in a series of full-scale explosions. Below: A 5’ model of the Moonraker soars heavenward over one of Derek Meddings’ flawless miniature sets.

Above Left: No SFX team is needed to make a giant of 7' 2” Richard Kiel. His romantic partner is diminuitive French actress Blanche Ravalec. Right: Kiel prepares to sever a “steel cable” with the bare steel of his legendary Jaws. Below: The closing sequences of Moonraker boasts a wealth of optical effects, as laser warfare breaks out aboard the Drax space station.

[Source: STARLOG #26, September 1979, P.50-51.]

FILE S5/23 84982 00 Section

NOT TO BE TAKEN OFF FLOOR LEVEL 3

NAME OF AGENT: James Bond

NATIONALITY: British

SEX: Male

MARITAL STATE: Single

EDUCATION: Eton, Fettes College

SERVICE RECORD: Lieutenant in Special Branch of RNVR Achieved rank of Commander

HONOURS: CMG

PARENTS: Andrew Bond (Scottish), Monique Delacroix (Swiss)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Height: 1.83m Weight: 76 kilos. Scar down right cheek and right shoulder; signs of plastic surgery on back of right hand

INTERESTS: Gambling; fast cars; expensive clothes; sophisticated women; sailing; good food; music

HEALTH: Excellent

I.Q.: Far above average

RECORD IN SECRET SERVICE SO FAR: Apart from one or two failures has maintained remarkable success rate on operations, and looks set to be department head in time.

N.B. Bond has a double 0 number, giving him the right to kill in the course of his duties

EXTREMELY CONFIDENTIAL

NOT TO BE REMOVED

CONFIDENTIAL FILE

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION NOT TO BE REMOVED WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF APPROPRIATE DEPARTMENT HEAD

Confidential document prepared by ‘M’, head of the Secret Service:

James Bond, 007, is one of our top agents, both in performance and rank.

His good looks tend to give the impression of a man of delicate nature, but in situations demanding ruthlessness and animal courage there is no one better. Known and admired by the Secret Services of the western powers, he is the man they ask for when they want a helping hand on an exacting mission. He is an expert pistol shot, boxer and knife-thrower.

A professional spy has only himself to depend on when in the field, therefore he must be something of a lone wolf, used to finding his own way out of embarrassing situations without losing his ice-cold control. Bond has this essential attitude of mind, able to cut himself off from all petty emotions and concentrate entirely on the job in hand. Of course the few playthings we supply before he starts a mission do help him somewhat.

Regrettably, Bond does seem always to get tangled up with women on his assignments. But such is his control of the situation that invariably he manages to extract himself with the minimum of discredit—much to the fury of SMERSH and SPECTRE.

For relaxation he likes to have the occasional night at a casino, followed by a good meal and a bottle of wine . . . and then home to his collection of classical and blues records. He has few close male friends but when off-duty in London he has yet to be seen without a girl on his arm.

Unpredictable, exasperating, undisciplined—all these things Bond may be, but one thing is certain . . . we’re lucky he’s on our side.

M

INTERNAL ONLY MEMO

SECRET

[Source: James Bond "Moonraker" Annual, 1979. P.62-63]