Sky's The Limit For New Bond Movie
And Budget Rockets As OO7 Is Launched Into Space
THE STAR - December 5, 1978
By RODERICK MANN
Top Hollywood Columnist
JAMES BOND is being launched into space in Moonraker, the 11th and most extravagant Bond movie, costing an astronomic $25 million.
"We show things NASA would have done if they had the money," boasts producer Albert R. ("Cubby") Broccoli. "NASA approved our script, so what we're showing is science fact - not fiction." Filming, which started last August, is expected to last a year and is taking place in such exotic locations as Venice, Rio, and Guatemala.
It's the intrepid 007's launch into space, coupled with the skidding dollar, that's shot the budget for Moonraker far higher than ever veteran Bond producer Broccoli anticipated.
Director Lewis Gilbert says: "I try not to think about the budget. But I don't mind telling you I once made movies for less than we're spending on telephone calls."
But if Broccoli's worried, it doesn't show. Relaxing on the terrace of the Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice, sipping his drink and watching gondola's glide silently along the Grand Canal, he oozes confidence.
His confidence is probably not misplaced. The Bond pictures have one huge advantage over all others - a built-in audience of millions, growing larger every year.
The last one, The Spy Who Loved Me, was the biggest money-earner yet. "And this one will be even better," Broccoli said. For the first time, the film is not an exclusively British-based production, but a Franco-British with sound stages in Paris.
As with past Bonds, Broccoli is using only the title of Ian Fleming's book, The story, written 23 years ago, is old-hat by today's standards, featuring a threatened rocket attack on London, launched by the villainous Hugo Drax.
Updating the story, Broccoli has literally reached for the stars. The main theme is set in space, with the villains hijacking a space shuttle.
Moonraker has a feast of technical gadgetry. "And everything actually works," says set designer Ken Adam, working on his sixth Bond film.
The Spy Who Loved Me had a stunning opening sequence showing Bond, chased by villains, skiing over the edge of a precipice and being saved by his parachute.
The opening shot of Moonraker goes one better. Bond is pitched out of an airplane by villains - this time with no parachute. He is saved by what's claimed to be one of the most breathtaking aerial stunts ever seen on or off the screen.
Venice provides the backdrop for some spectacular scenes, including a gondola chase, a struggle in a clocktower with the villain hurtling through the clockface, and a literally smashing fight in a glass factory.
From Venice, the action moves to the jungles of Central America, the carnival at Rio and Guatemala. Then on into space. The cast headed by Roger Moore playing his fourth Bond, Lois Chiles, playing CIA heroine Holly Goodhead; Richard Kiel, old Jaws himself dragged back by his teeth for more murder and mayhem; and French actor Michael Lonsdale playing the villainous Drax. Plus, of course, the regulars - Bernard Lee as M, Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny; and Desmond Llewelyn as Q.
Shooting in Venice centered for a while on a 16th-century monastery, which adjoins a church where St. Nicholos, the man who became known as Santa Claus, is buried.
Back on the set, a line of dummy soldiers moves along a concealed track as explosive darts begin to rip into them. Lewis Gilbert, who has directed half a dozen war films in the past, puts his hands over his ears. "I just can't stand explosions," he explains wryly. On his way to the U.S. last year for talks with Broccoli, Gilbert found himself sitting next to Lois Chiles on the plane. She was returning home from making Death On the Nile.
"I told her we'd thought of her for the last Bond film," he says. "But we were told by her agent that she'd retired."
What Lois had actually done was take time off to study her craft. "Remember," she says, sitting under one of the monastery arches, "I was a former model who'd make just one film before being thrust alongside people such as Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford (in The Way We Were and The Great Gatsby). “It was all a bit, bewildering.” "So when some critic described me as 'no more than a table decoration' I decided to go to New York and study under an acting teacher."
As dusk falls, the unit packs up and everyone prepares to board the high-speed launches which will whisk them back to their hotels.
Roger Moore, who will spend more than five months dodging death and disaster by every means scriptwriter Christopher Wood can devise, takes a last look at the Church of St. Nicolo.
"They tell me there are three old saints buried there," he says with a grin. "With what they're putting me through on this film, I just hope another old Saint isn't about to join them."