Uncovering Timothy Dalton's Lost 3rd Bond Film

what if Timothy Dalton returned for a third Bond film well he almost did and no it wouldn't have been golden ey a completely different script was written that not only would have had a lighter and more humorous tone than Dalton's previous two films but would also see many of its best moments repurposed for later Bond films so let's dive in and find out why it was never made and what could have been the property of a lady in A View to a Kill Roger Moore realized his time as Bond was up when he found out that at age 57 he was older than the mother of that film's Bond girl Tanya Roberts when all the leading ladies started looking like my granddaughter after stepping down the hunt for a new Bond began with many promising young actors screen testing for the part my friends called me Bond James Bond while Sam Neil was the favorite amongst the team including producers Barbara Brockley and her stepbrother Michael G Wilson their father Albert cubby broccoli who at the time still called the shots wasn't sold instead broccoli had had his eyes on Pierce broen who he had met several years earlier on the set of For Your Eyes Only declaring after meeting him if he can act he's my guy not only that but thanks to broen's charismatic depiction of a Suave bond-like character on Remington steel he quickly became the obvious choice to replace more Pierce was so keen on becoming Bond we decided uh uh to test Pierce and I came down here to Pinewood and we did extensive testing for three days I cut the um test together presented them to cabby and we sat in the theater and he slowly nodded his head and the timing couldn't have been better as Remington steel had just been cancelled due to Falling ratings however with news that broen would be the new bond interest in Remington steel grew resulting in a sharp upswing in the show's ratings this led NBC to reverse their decision to cancel the series as they exercised a 60-day option in bren's contract 3 days before it expired to make another season of Remington steel did you ever think you'd be back doing Remington steel you know what no as a result broccoli withdrew the offer given to broen to play Bond as he didn't want the character associated with a contemporary television series declaring Remington steel will not be James Bond I was disappointed but I think I'm a strong believer in fate and I think certain things are meant to happen for a reason in life instead broen would have to settle for appearing as a bond-like character in Diet Coke commercials is not a perfect world ah hello that's my dad C refreshing while searching for a replacement Brockley remembered an actor he had previously offered the role of bond to for On Her Majesty's Secret Service to replace Shan connory but who turned it down as the actor Timothy Dalton felt at the time that they were too young to play the character I think Bon should be between about 35 and 40 and it's a 25 26 year old you know would it would not have been right with bronen out Brockley asked Dalton to step in who after some deliberating finally agreed and while Dalton may have looked like broen his interpretation of 007 would be completely different where broen was sve charming and quick to crack jokes I think we understand each other grow up 007 Dalton played the role more like a stone cold killer make a sound and you're dead in a precursor to Daniel Craig's interpretation of the character that would come years later aiming to align Bond more closely with the version depicted in Ian Fleming's novels Dalton's Bond offered a darker and more introspective take on the iconic spy you can always identify with the James Bond of the books I mean he's very much a man and a tarnished man really he's not perfect he agreed that he wanted to play a harder kind of bond he would appear first in The Living Daylights and then in Licensed to Kill critically they received a mix reception as did Dalton's darker portrayal of the character and I guess the question that people would like an answer to Is what kind of a James Bond does he make well I give him a mixed review Timothy Dalton is a good actor he is very convincing in the movie's more serious moments he has a great screen presence he looks interesting but if he has a weakness it's the comic side of the character as plans moved ahead for a third film to fulfill Dalton's three picture deal The Producers look to inject more humor into the film aiming for a tone reminiscent of the Roger Moore era since they felt audiences weren't fully embracing Dalton's violent hard-hitting 007 films a poster for the then Untitled film even appeared at the 1990 con film festival and while the script would go through several drafts and ultimately never be made it's a amazing how many ideas in it would be reused in later Bond films tentatively titled property of a lady the plot of Dalton's third Bond outing would have revolved around the theft of a new stealth fighter called the Scimitar as Bond's task with tracking it down before he leaves on his mission however he meets Nigel yupin a rising young star in the ministry of Defense who feels a dou o section is outdated to expensive and should be disbanded this character shares many similarities to both Judy Den's m in Golden Eye who feels Bond as a sexist misogynist dinosaur a relic of the Cold War as well as Max Denby inspector who wants to close down the double O section as a sign of the evolving times Bond quickly learns that money Penny is engaged and Q branch is being shut down in a cost cutting measure Bond's new car is a Honda CRX which he refuses to drive throughout the film Bon is depicted as an old school agent or over the hill who struggles to complete his mission which would become the core of Skyfall story however where Skyfall treats this seriously this film would have played it more for Laughs as Bon complains about his age throughout the film Alla Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon I'm too for this the main villain in the film would have been Sir Henry Ferguson who is planning to use the Scimitar to launch a covert nuclear attack on China in a move designed to force a regime change in favor of the Hardline military figure General Han the ultimate goal is for Han to take over the country and subsequently Grant Hong Kong to Sir Henry Ferguson allowing him to rule over it as his own principality sir Henry's plan to use a stealth fighter to help a Chinese despot complete a coup in China is very similar to Elliot Carver using a stealth boat to do the same and tomor Never Dies Anthony Hopkins was rumored to be the number one choice for the role and expressed interest in playing an intelligent villain which he would get to do in Silence of the Lambs Popkins would subsequently turn down the role of trellion in golden eye and Elliot car Tomorrow Never Dies however it's worth noting that both of these films were made following his star making portrayal of intelligent villain Hannibal Lecter and seeing as how property of a lady would have preceded that film and makes me wonder if he would have been more open to playing the character CIA agent Connie Webb is this film's Bond girl who Bon crosses paths with as he begins his mission discovering that she's on a similar Mission again very reminiscent of NSA agent Jinx and Die Another Day and Chinese agent why Lynn and Tomorrow Never Dies as a daughter of a not Master burglar Connie was recruited and trained by the CIA to infiltrate high security facilities to gather intelligence but left the agency and noww works as a freelancer for them Katherine Zetta Jones and Elizabeth Hurley were the top contenders for the role Bond films are noted for the Exotic locations Bond travels to throughout the world as well as their thrilling stunts and this film would have been no different the pre-title sequence would have open in North Africa where Bond under the guise of competing in a powerboat race parasols his way into a Libyan chemical weapons plant once inside Bond sets explosives before being confronted by a security robot equipped with a taser and an Uzi after battling the robot Bond escapes and rendevu with another agent who berates him for failing to achieve the mission objective of destroying the plant only for the facility to then explode in the background as a fragment of the robot lands next to them taking us into the title sequence this entire opening with Bond sneaking into a facility planting explosives and then escaping is very similar to the opening of golden ey minus the robot after getting his orders Bon would have traveled to Vancouver Canada which is where he first crossed path with Connie Webb as they both investigate the missing stealth fighter which Bond learns was stolen by a group of gangsters known as the vanelli brothers on behalf of the main villain Sir Henry Ferguson while in Vancouver Bond and Connie would have had a friendly kaying race through the Rapids of a mountain river before returning to their hotel and engaging in you know what before Bon wakes up the next morning to find her gone so that's what that feels like Bond then follows the vanelli Brothers to Las Vegas which he drives to in a Lamborghini a running gag in the film is Bond running up the build for his mission as he keeps renting different exotic cars which infuriates the penny pinching yupin who is trying to reign in mi6's expenses in Vegas Bon learns that the vanelli brothers plan to sell the Scimitar to Sir Henry Ferguson following this Bon gets into a bizarre fight with two female bodybuilders in his hotel before tracking the vanelli brothers to a rodeo where he runs into Connie again once there Bon disguises himself in a cowboy outfit rides a bull and then gets into a showdown with some of the brothers henchmen as the henchmen reach for their Guns Bon guns them down like a cowboy from an old western from here the vanelli brothers flee towards the Las Vegas Strip in Li limo while Bon pursues in a monster truck causing tons of Destruction along the way which again is very similar to the tank Chase in Golden Eye the vanelli brothers escape with a scimitar to Hong Kong which causes a furious yupin to suspend Bond and Order him back to London Bond ignores him and instead flies to Hong Kong where the Vaneli delivered the Scimitar to Sir Henry who promptly kills them Bond tracks Sir Henry to his private island and discovers that he's an avid fencer the two agree to duel which escalates into an increasingly destructive sword fight exactly like the duel bond gets in with gustoff Graves and Die Another Day afterwards Bon meets up with Q who gives him his classic DB5 before Bon finds himself being chased by one of Sir Henry's henchmen in a sports car outfitted with guns and missiles in a scene just like the car chase on ice and Die Another Day Connie tracks the C to n King Tower before being captured by Sir Henry and his goons the Scimitar is moments away from taking off and dropping a new gun China Bond infiltrates Nanking Tower and steals the simitar before disabling its nuclear warheads while Connie is able to escape her captures Bon then returns to Nanking Tower flies through it and impal Sir Henry on the nose of the aircraft however it's worth noting that in a previous draft of the script the film ends with Sir Henry in a combat suit exactly like the fight Bon finds himself in against Gustaf Graves at the end of D another day so what went wrong Not only was the script finished but Dalton thought it was quite good as the film entered production in 1990 with broccoli and team interviewing directors unfortunately as MGM United Artists the company responsible for Distributing the Bond films prepared to be sold legal disputes arose between them their buyer and cubby Brock's company Dan Jack owner of the Bond film rights stalling the production process when the dust finally settled Dalton's contract had expired which meant he was no longer legally obligated to star in another Bond film regardless he was still asked by broccoli if he'd like to return to which he replied that he'd like to do one more however Brockley told him that after a 5-year gap between movies he couldn't come back and just do one Dalton would have to commit to doing four or five more which dalon felt would be too much and respectfully declined that done I now become part of a rather wonderful history this ended up being a relief to the studio as they weren't Keen for Dalton to return anyway as his films were not the most loved by fans with Licensed to Kill being the lowest grossing Bond film of all time adjusted for inflation plus the studio wanted to introduce bond to a new generation and felt that it was counterintuitive to do that with Delton still in the role and in a great example of Fate being fulfilled and history coming full circle for some crazy reason it came round to me again and I think when something happens in your life for a second time it carries a certain significance and I couldn't have said no to it Pierce Bren would finally land the role he was born to play the name is Bond James Bond starring in what many consider to be one of the best Bond films of all time thanks for watching everybody and don't forget to like And subscribe to bullets and Blockbusters for more great content

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Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2023