It has been an extremely long wait between the most recent James Bond films. ‘No Time To Die is scheduled to come to cinemas on September 30th 2021, making the wait for the film a lengthy one, thanks to numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Should we see it come to our screens on the new proposed date, it will mean the length of waiting will be 5 years, 11 months and 4 days between it and previous film ‘Spectre’ from 2015.
However, it’s not the longest wait that Bond fans have had for a new 007 adventure. So which two films had the longest gap and how long was it? Well, that goes to 1989’s ‘License To Kill’ and 1995’s ‘Goldeneye’, with 6 years, 4 months and 10 days between the release of the two films.
Why did filmgoers have to wait so long? It was caused by a domino effect that started from an underwhelming box office intake from ‘License To Kill’. The film still made a large profit and wasn’t critically panned, but it does hold the unfortunate record for the lowest earner at the box office of any James Bond film.
The main factors that probably lead to this, were the fact that the name of the film was changed, initially, it was going to be titled ‘License Revoked’. The change came because they were not sure that an American audience knew what the word ‘revoked’ meant. Another factor was that when the film was released, the summer of 1989 had a lot of other big blockbuster films competing with Bond such as ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’, ‘Ghostbusters II’ and ‘Batman’. Since then, a James Bond film has never been released in the summer, typically going for a winter release.
Having said that, time has been kind to ‘License To Kill’. Many fans consider the second Timothy Dalton outing to be one of the most underrated films of the entire franchise. This is due to the more gritty and intense tone of the film. Additionally, many see this film as setting the foundations for the Daniel Craig films with the likes of ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’ being highly praised by fans and critics alike for its hard-edge demeanour. Dalton’s portrayal of Bond is also seen as a precursor to Craig’s tougher and more serious take on the MI5 spy.
Albert Broccoli (the long-time producer of the films), started to get doubts that he could continue with his current role. The founder of EON Productions decided to put Danjaq (a film company owned by EON) up for sale, as they held the copyrights for all of the 007 films. Whilst this was occurring, the distributors of the films (MGM/UA) were also looking to be purchased. An Australian financial services company looked as if they had picked them up, but the deal fell through. Instead, it was Pathe Entertainment (a film company from France) that bought them. The international rights of the Bond films were sold off by Pathe so that they could afford the buyout.
The market value of the international rights was sold at a much lower market value and on top of that, Danjaq was not given a share of the profits. This led to a court case where Danjaq and MGM-Pathe Communications ended up suing each other. It wasn’t until December 1992 that all the lawsuits were concluded and resolved.
When the production work began for the next film in 1993 one of the major problems was that Timothy Dalton’s contract as Bond had expired. His general feeling back in 1990 was that his time as Bond and the franchise as a whole was probably over. At first, he was excited by the thought of starring in another 007 adventure, but this soon changed when in negotiations with the new producer of the franchise Barbara Broccoli made it clear they wanted Dalton for more than just one additional film. So due to these facts, there was a large gap between films and Dalton was not keen on doing multiple James Bond films, and he decided that in April 1994 he would step down from the lead role.
Piers Brosnan went to get the role and play the English agent in 1995’s ‘Goldeneye’. The film was extremely successful and helped reboot the franchise after the long 6 years wait between films. After ‘Goldeneye’, we would see three more adventures with Brosnan as the beloved English spy, taking the total amount of Bond films starring the Irish actor up to four. Following the financially successful but poorly received ‘Die Another Day’, from 2002, Brosnan stepped down from the role and was replaced by Daniel Craig who is now the current Bond we have today.
Interestingly, before Dalton got the role back in 1986, Brosnan was the actor they wanted to replace Roger Moore after 1985’s ‘A View To A Kill’. The Irishman was not able to do so due to the fact he had contract commitments with the American crime drama ‘Remington Steele.’
However, like Brosnan, Dalton had been considered for the role even earlier. The Welshman was considered to replace the iconic Sean Connery for ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (the role would eventually go to George Lazenby). But, at the time Dalton thought he was too young to play the role at the time (he was only 24). During the pre-production of 1981’s ‘For Your Eyes Only’, Dalton was approached but he didn’t think he was suited to play the type of Bond that was required and declined again.
With a nearly 60-year-old film series such as Bond, there will always be hurdles to overcome. ‘No Time To Die’ will be the last film to star Daniel Craig in the lead role, so it is key that his time goes out with a bang to set the stage for a new actor to come in.
However, no matter the outcome the series has managed to bounce back multiple times. Many thought ‘License To Kill’ may have been the last film back in the early 1990s. But time and time again it seems that Bond always finds a way to reinvent itself and keep audiences coming back for more.
Mark Murphy Journalist 