Thunderball at 60: The Bond and Beyond Treatment

Combination of things here. One is that I was browsing the section and saw we had a brief flirtation with book discussions. Another is that it could be a case of scraping the barrel and the last is I'm a supporter of lost causes (as my football team will testify to).

According to the net, Thunderball was published in March 1961, prior to Fleming signing the rights over to Saltzman and co. So I figured, as there's that but also it was to be the first Bond movie originally, we could perhaps look to debating and discussing the book around this time. It's a loose timeframe but see if we generate some interest and perhaps for some of us, give Thunderball a fresh look.

Sounds like a great idea, Hilly. Just not sure I'll have time to for a little while.

The original Thunderball was in development in 1958, wasn't it? So technically it's 63.

I imagine it's that old. I forget sometimes all of the trouble associated with Thunderball. I wonder if before he died, he regretted writing it. All the legal trouble that likely contributed to his untimely death.

I'm sure he did regret it.

Or at least gave him an excuse to hit the liquor cabinet.

I'm steering myself towards TB bit by bit. The March 27 date is the UK publication so that's what I'm basing the anniversary upon.

I tried browsing to see if anyone at all was mentioning Thunderball (you do get some marking random anniversaries) but even so, I think I might do a book review vid for it, see if that garners attention. Not my favourite Fleming Bond but not the worse.

I've been toying with the idea of picking up a Bond novel again. This may have just made up my mind.

Seems ideal in a way. Around sixty years ago this year Fleming signs the rights over, Connery eventually is chosen and TB was meant to be the first film.

It feels odd celebrating the book that ultimately killed Fleming. Hmmm...

True. The book that gave McClory this obsession.

Imagine if TB had been the first film, on likely the same $1 million budget as Dr No ... it'd be a more low-key beast, fo sho.

Absolutely, might have been a much better movie. It's good as is but the budget, the style surely much sharper like Dr No.

They couldn't have done it the same way on a $1m budget. If it was the exact same DN team the story would have to have been very streamlined and made much more one locale. The focusing of the story scope could have resulted in more energy like DN for sure.

The bomb hijacking sequence would look rather sketchy, had TB been the first Bond film.

I reckon a lot of the underwater filming would've had to go, maybe even all of it.

Assuming Terence Young did it, which seems likely. I think we'd get the RAF detail we got in TB'65 but as Fields says, the hijacking on would probably be quite different. Underwater scenes pruned, as Blunty says. Definitely the end with the YB-17 plucking Bond and Domino up. Instead an ending similar to Dr No.

It'd be relatively faithful to the book.

One other factor is the music. Dr No didn't quite have a soundtrack as such -Three Blind Mice etc, the Bond theme, the spider music was there but nothing like what we got from FRWL. I'd imagine TB'62 would've had a similar sound to Dr No with songs etc.

Come Dr No's 1965 release, we have a gunbarrel, PTS, full blown title song by Tom Jones ("Dr Noooo-ooooo-oooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"), gadgets up the Khyber, Rik van Nutter's Felix announcing himself loudly in Pussfeller's joint ("Why if it isn't 007!")....

I'm talking about the budget curtailing underwater filming had TB been the first film, but I've realised I'm not even sure that the camera tech in '62 would've been up to it anyway.

Wasn't TB conceptualised in 1958 because of McClory's obsession with creating underwater sequences? Surely they'd have to keep the underwater action in, in whatever shape that would take? I'm visualising shooting shoddy miniatures in fishtanks.

You might be right about the music, Hilly. Not sure what Bahamian music is like but at least the Dr No soundtrack has a cultural flavour! I'd say we lucked out in that respect, it turning out as it did.

They likely would have gone to the same key water people who at the time were really the only ones. Just imagine a much smaller scale of sequences probably broken up into a lot of small ones.

The big water film pre-TB was Disney‘a triumph 20,000 Leagues which managed to do underwater stuff no one had ever done before and in early CinemaScope. I’m sure the giant squid attack influenced Fleming writing the novel years later. The other water film primarily would be Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D.

I can't recall if there were underwater scenes, but the model and ocean work in A Night to Remember was brilliant. Perhaps those folk would have been approached.

There weren't underwater scenes in Night to Remember but the work with the lifeboats and what have you was done well, more-so considering it was a boating lake just outside London. Actually was piddling cold as well when they did it.

There's fan edits of things like Phantom Menace, Star Trek The Motion Picture, wonder if there are ways for edits of Thunderball and others.

It would be curious to see the original Hunt 3-5 minute edit of the underwater battle. And of course the long rumored 4 hour long cut of the film.

Got to be a way of finding this. Though I'd have to see the 4hr cut somewhere comfortable. With Tom Jones singing the song as you come into the cinema.

We're approaching its 60th anniversary. Maybe then they can release it.

Boy, that's sobering. One day the 50th of OHMSS and soon the sixtieth of Dr No, FRWL, GF...

Well lads, I've finished one book and now picked up TB. As I say the UK publication date is what I'm going by because, for my sins, I'm British (chortle). I was going to change the forum's header accordingly but we might wait for the next film anniversary out of FYEO, DAF and CR.