Cubby Broccoli’s malicious plan to sabotage Sean Connery’s unofficial ‘James Bond’ movie: “It’s just business”
For more than 60 years, the Broccoli family ruled over the James Bond franchise, so it was understandable that the patriarch, Cubby, wasn’t best pleased at Sean Connery headlining an unofficial 007 adventure.
Not that there was anything he could do about it, with Never Say Never Again jumping through all of the required legal hoops before going in front of the cameras. The longtime producer and figurehead of the spy series was incandescent that his original Bond had betrayed him, but he had to swallow his pride.
It’s been the black sheep since it was released in 1983, with Eon Productions refusing to acknowledge its existence, even though Connery plays James Bond in a globe-spanning adventure where he wields gadgets, drops one-liners, showcases his lothario credentials, and stops SPECTRE from taking over the world.
Technically, it was his own fault. Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham honed the story for an early iteration of Thunderball, which was never made. Broccoli made another version anyway without giving them any credit, which led to a lengthy legal battle that culminated in the duo being awarded the rights to a remake, as long as it wasn’t in production until ten years after the first.
Broccoli tried to stop it, but he couldn’t argue with the law. Bringing Connery back more than a decade after his Diamonds Are Forever swansong was the hardest kick in the teeth, and even though the star didn’t enjoy the experience in the slightest, he still made a lot of money. To add insult to injury, Never Say Never Again considered going directly head-to-head with the tux’s current incumbent, Roger Moore.
Connery’s unofficial 007 outing began shooting in September 1982, little over a month after principal photography began on Roger Moore’s Octopussy. There was a very real chance it could be a battle of the Bonds at the box office, but as longtime Moneypenny, Lois Maxwell, told 007 Magazine, Broccoli had a plan.
“Well, when the rival production said they were going to release their film at the same time as Octopussy, Cubby said, ‘If they’re going to release their film at the same time as ours, then I’m going to re-release the first three Bond films at the same time, so that the public will be able to compare the slender handsome, good-looking young Sean Connery,” she revealed, adding that his mantra was “It’s just business.”
Because he’d “fought for years in the courts to try and prevent this film from being made,” he wasn’t going to lose and suffer the embarrassment that came with it. In the end, he didn’t have to remind audiences that Connery was no longer the young, fresh-faced Bond he used to be, with Never Say Never Again moving its release date to October 1983, three months after Octopussy had premiered in cinemas.
Both pictures were hits, combining to earn almost $350 million in ticket sales, but since the official instalment cost less to make and made more money at the box office, Broccoli could claim victory. He didn’t need to enact his malicious plan, but if he had, it might even have backfired, should the hypothetical re-releases of Dr No, From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger have had the opposite effect and made viewers more excited than ever for Connery’s unthinkable comeback.
