Maibaum's original idea

Having seen a number of Faye Dunaway films recently I googled to see if she was really in contention to play Anya in TSWLM. Turns out she was looked at for Octopussy but was deemed too expensive. But what I discovered was Maibaum's original idea:

Bondfanevents wrote:

Dick had created a treatment far darker than the Octopussy you see today. In his first draft Octopussy was a supervillainess on a quest for vengeance against Blofeld and SPECTRE; a retalation of sorts for a defeat her organization suffered at Blofeld`s hands. She recruits 007 in her revenge scheme knowing that Blofeld had killed Bond`s wife, Tracy, and would most certainly want to help bring Blofeld down (apparently being dropped 1000 feet down a chimney stack isn`t enough to kill off a supervillain these days). Bond and Octopussy were to team up to take on Blofeld and even disarm a super techno-weapon called the OCTO-PC (perhaps some sort of personal computer?). We`ll never know exactly what Maibaum had in mind because George MacDonald Fraser was brought on to steer the story in a different direction; away from Blofeld, SPECTRE, and any legal entanglements using them could bring about.

https://bondfanevents.com/faye-dunaway-and-sybil-danning-bond-babes/

I'd never heard of this before. I don't recall it being in the reliable, comprehensive book Some Kind of Hero; I imagine I would have remembered info surrounding an OCTO-PC.

Of course it's only an outline, but aside from the idea of Bond teaming up with a villain to bring down another villain, it seems pretty base. I think the final product exhibits far more intrigue than this (save for the goofier elements in India).

I've never cared for OP to be honest, so this sounds a lot more interesting to me than the final product.

"OCTO-PC" is pretty clever too. Very 80's!

CJB wrote:

I've never cared for OP to be honest, so this sounds a lot more interesting to me than the final product.

"OCTO-PC" is pretty clever too. Very 80's!

Ditto.

It certainly sounds interesting, but if that's the way OP had gone I would've wanted FYEO's pre-credits sequence to have been different.

I've heard a rumbling of an earlier Maibaum OP approach but never anything that fleshed out. I want to dive into his archives so badly at this point if I'm honest.

Maibaum's archives would be a treat indeed! From this to TSWLM's original drafts- even to see if the final shooting script reduced Anya's subplot to aid Bach's limited range.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

It certainly sounds interesting, but if that's the way OP had gone I would've wanted FYEO's pre-credits sequence to have been different.

Yeah. Not only that, but also the fact that the OCTO-PC could potentially rehash the ATAC.

CJB wrote:

"OCTO-PC" is pretty clever too. Very 80's!

I can almost hear the sound effects for it!

A publication called MediaScene had mention of this original idea, circa 1982. It had Sybil Danning on the cover.

Sybil Danning was on the cover of every movie rumour magazine in the early / mid 80s. She was going to be Fatima Blush in NSNA, the witch who seduced Darth Vader to the dark side, etc etc. The only thing I ever actually saw her in was V, in a brief cameo appearance.

She was also in this, although i would never look at such things myself