ZAMM.COM

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, the 12th James Bond movie, was the first not to be based on an Ian Fleming novel.

Fleming wrote 12 Bond novels plus two collections of Bond short stories, the first of which, “For Your Eyes Only,” was published April 11, 1960. It included five short stories — “The Hildebrand Rarity,” “Quantum of Solace,” “From A View To A Kill,” “Risico” & “For Your Eyes Only.” “Eyes” was to have been an episode for a 1958 Bond TV series deal Fleming had made with CBS that wasn’t produced. “Risico” & “Eyes” were both sources for the movie EYES, as were some plot points in Fleming’s novels “Goldfinger” & “Live and Let Die.”

EYES, which opened June 26, 1981 via United Artists, was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and adapted to the screen by Richard Maibaum &  Michael G. Wilson. It marked film editor John Glen’s directorial debut because earlier 007 directors — Terence Young (DR. NO), Guy Hamilton (GOLDFINGER), Lewis Gilbert (MOONRAKER) & Peter Hunt (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE) — were now too expensive for UA.

The studio nearly went under after the failure of Michael Cimino’s $40M western HEAVEN’S GATE (1980). Between Cimino, an early ’80s recession and the soaring $34M budget for 1979’s Bond space epic MOONRAKER, UA needed to hold down EYES’ budget, which came in at just $28M. For Glen, the budget crunch meant cutting back on expensive technical gadgets and large scale action scenes.

EYES starred Roger Moore as Bond. Already famous for the 1960s British TV series THE SAINT, Moore had signed with Broccoli’s Eon Productions to play Bond in three now completed films — LIVE AND LET DIE (1973), THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974) & THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977).

He began working title-by-title with MOONRAKER and no one knew if he’d return for EYES. Eon considered many possible new Bonds, including Ian Ogilvy, who played Simon Templar, Moore’s old role, in RETURN OF THE SAINT; Michael Billington, who’d been a Russian agent in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME; and Michael Jayston, who’d starred in the British TV spy series QUILLER.

Timothy Dalton was seriously considered, but passed because he didn’t like how the series was changing. A few years later, however, he came on board to play Bond in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987) & LICENCE TO KILL (1989).
When Moore found out Eon had quietly screen tested some 007 hopefuls, he made headlines by promising not to return. But Broccoli, master producer that he was, got him to change his mind just two weeks later.

Moore made two more Bonds after EYES — OCTOPUSSY (1983) & A VIEW TO A KILL (1985). He’d started out at age 45 in 1973’s LIVE AND LET DIE. When he retired in 1985, he’d played 007 for over a dozen years and was now the oldest of the Bonds at 58. Sir Roger Moore, a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was 89 when he died May 23, 2017.