In the late eighties the British Film Industry had changed out of all recognition from its heyday in the sixties. Cinema attendances had fallen to such an all-time low that any monies available for production from the Eady Levy were negligible. High street cinemas had themselves fallen into disrepair and were closing down. In a climate of low admissions, the Eady Levy – effectively a tax on the cinema seat – was seen as an obstacle to the cinema-going public. In 1985 the scheme was abolished. The emphasis was now on rebuilding the nation’s cinema stock and the rise of the multiplex began. By being linked to box office earnings, the Levy had rewarded producers who made films the public saw. Now, one of the incentives for large-scale, populist film production in the UK was lost.1
Dwindling cinema attendances stalled film production in Britain. The studios could no longer afford to retain a permanent staff of skilled technicians. They went ‘four walls’ meaning productions booking into a studio would be required to hire their own crews. Variety reported, ‘The recent no-surprise decision of the Rank Organization to convert its historic Pinewood lot from a full-service to four-wall rental facility underlines the slump in studio-based theatrical production.’2 By reducing staffing costs, the studio could attract cheaper television work.3
Against this backdrop, MGM/UA was going through its usual corporate contortions. Jerry Weintraub had given way to Lee Rich of MGM/UA Communications and Tony Thomopoulos, chairman of United Artists Pictures.4 Buoyed by their huge library of films, including the Bond pictures, MGM enjoyed a large revenue stream from video-cassette and television.5 As the James Bond films were financed from America, the exchange rate affected production budgets. Unfortunately, the pound was high and this was blamed for the reluctance from US productions to shoot in the UK.6 Additionally the British government’s decision to withhold tax on foreign artists’ earnings, discouraged A-list talent from working in Great Britain.7 Charles ‘Jerry’ Juroe, marketing head of Eon Productions, stated ominously, ‘There’s a feeling that the general climate in the UK is not conducive to making movies.’8
Cubby Broccoli hired director John Glen for a record-breaking fifth consecutive Bond film.9 Glen was inspired by the possibilities Timothy Dalton in the role of James Bond now gave him.10 He wanted to push Bond in a harder direction, to compete with the spate of tougher-edged action films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon that were eclipsing Bond in the North American market.11 Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson set about crafting a new adventure that pushed the creative boundaries and reached for a more interesting film. In the seventies Bond budgets had jumped fourfold, reaching a zenith with Moonraker. In an effort to contain costs, ten years later, the Bond team were working with effectively the same budget. Taking into account inflation, the Bond team were more cost-conscious than ever before.12
Michael Wilson explained, ‘When we wrote The Living Daylights we didn’t know who was going to take over as James Bond. The script was finished and we were well into pre-production before Timothy Dalton was cast, so Tim played Bond as he saw it in our script. This time, having seen his ideas – there’s no doubt about it, the films are influenced by the way the actor plays Bond – we saw that Tim has a certain way of doing things.’13 The co-producer went on to concur with John Glen’s vision, ‘With Timothy Dalton, we’re going back to the basic Ian Fleming character and so coming from that we create a film in the Fleming vein. It’s not a comedy and, although it has comic moments, it’s much closer to the Fleming idea.’14
Towards the end of the eighties the Soviet threat was diminishing with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and the thawing of East/West relations. Wilson felt they had to be aware ‘of the world situation and what people will accept as a “loosely-based on reality” sort of plot.’15 John Rhys-Davies, who had played KGB General Pushkin in The Living Daylights, recalled he was asked to be involved, ‘They did ask me to do a couple of scenes. My answer was, “Well, if the scene was intergral to the story, yes, I’d be happy to. But if not, let’s not.” I would like to play Pushkin again, and I would like to make him more a central character like he was the last time.’16 Pushkin would reappear in Michael France’s draft of the GoldenEye screenplay.17
Richard Maibaum explained that initially the plan was to link the film to The Living Daylights, ‘We wanted to pick up on a warlord in the Golden Triangle from [the] previous film who was mixed up in drugs and we thought we could incorporate it into a story set in China.’18 Wilson confirmed, ‘We wrote two treatments … [one] involved the treasures of China and was quite a different story.’19
The Pacific Rim was fast becoming a place of interest as John Glen explained, ‘We did quite a lot of abortive recces. We went on from Japan to China via Hong Kong. Hong Kong always fascinated me. It had been used in a Bond already so we weren’t particularly keen to repeat a location. We’d rather a fresh location. China was just opening up to tourism and they’d just discovered the terracotta soldiers in Xian. I was very keen to look at that. We went around for a couple of weeks as guests of the Chinese government. They laid on everything that we needed.’20 While the British government appeared to be making things harder for film-makers, Glen remembered the production’s putative hosts ‘had a Chinese naval gunboat put at our disposal for a trip down the Yangtze which is quite a long way from Peking, not Beijing, [as] it was. It was an interesting trip and I was trying to conjure up [ideas]. We’d obviously have to use the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Xian. Michael and I were swapping notes of what we could do. Things didn’t jump at us like they do in certain other places.’21
A number of issues stymied Bond shooting in East Asia. Wilson felt, ‘There was a question of how expensive and what problems there might be working in China.’22 Glen felt control was an issue, ‘The Chinese said that they would want to vet the script and take out anything they considered was a bit provocative, Cubby said that was impossible and we just didn’t go.’23
Peter Lamont embarked on an extensive location hunt in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, ‘We went out to Los Angeles and looked at various things there. Then we crossed over to Miami, we had the governor’s plane take us down to Key West. Then we went to the Bahamas [by private plane] to Martinique, Guadalupe, St. Croix and St. John. The idea was that we would fly over to Mérida and Cancún but unfortunately there was a huge storm so we didn’t.’24 Eventually they arrived in Mexico City and inspected the facilities. Upon returning to London, Lamont was called to see Broccoli in South Audley Street, ‘Cubby said, “So, what do you think?” I said, “I think if we go to Mexico City we are mad, the facilities are awful.” He looked at me and he said, “If we don’t go to Mexico City we’re not doing the picture.”’25
Once the direction of the story was ascertained the production left the UK to be based in Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. Michael Wilson felt the force of finance, ‘We had a situation where our movie was set in that part of the world, so we saved perhaps 15 per cent over what we would have spent in London to do the same film. Because of the exchange rate with the dollar, Europe has become a very difficult place to film and our kind of picture is difficult to make in the United States. So you’re really in a quandary. Europe is high-priced and the US is high-priced.’26
As a starting point, Maibaum asked, ‘Who is the great Satan today?’27 Wilson explored the topic, ‘In this particular case I thought, “Who are the people that the Western World consider the bad guys?” When you start looking too deeply you start eliminating some of them because they’re so bad, you don’t want to write about them – just ask Salman Rushdie!’28
Maibaum arrived at an answer, ‘The drug lord!’29 Wilson was then inspired by real-life events of narcotics dealers and their extreme world of violence, ‘We had a case in the United States last year with a Columbian guy called Carlos [Lehder] who was one of the “Big Five” in a drugs consortium. Apparently the other four didn’t have too much contact with him – they decided he was too violent and crazy to deal with.’30 Wilson took inspiration from such real-life drug-lords for their central villain, ‘I thought there are these guys in Columbia who go down to Miami and execute whole families just to make a point about a business deal with someone and this was the sort of person our villain was.’31
Wilson mined a creatively rich vein, ‘Actually, drug lords are very political. There are countries where legitimate institutions of democracy are undermined by the huge wealth and power of drug lords.’32 The producer was inspired by the international aspect of the crime:
I feel that in the popular cinema, it was an issue that hadn’t been addressed. It’s usually people in the United States working with drug dealers and drug users and what goes on about stopping drugs. This, however, is an effort to say if you look at what’s happening to the countries where drugs are grown and exported, is it true you’re not hurting anyone but yourself when you do them? Live and Let Die dealt with it in a vague way, but it’s really only been dealt with in journalism and documentaries.33
Another news event inspired Wilson, ‘Then there was General Noriega, who I thought rather colourful and who was giving the US the two-finger salute over the Panama Canal while harbouring all the drug criminals, dealing in protection and such like.’34 The writer blended Lehder and Noriega, ‘So I thought up this character taking a bit of both of them and thought he would be a colourful character to oppose Bond – hence Franz Sanchez complete with [a] German/Spanish name.’35
Arriving on the villain, though, was only the beginning. Wilson pondered, ‘So you start with James Bond and someone like Sanchez and say, “Right, where do we go from here?” and the story unfolds.’36 This is the challenge for a Bond producer, as Wilson explained, ‘You can’t disappoint the audience, but you can’t give them what they expect.’37 Richard Maibaum felt the new story broke new ground, ‘What we have is for the first time Bond becoming personally involved to a greater extent than he’s ever been before because of the death of Leiter’s wife and the maiming of Leiter. This starts him off on a purely personal mission of vengeance.’38 Wilson acknowledged that vengeance was the subtext in previous films – Goldfinger when Jill Masterson dies and the pre-title sequence of Diamonds Are Forever in which Bond was bent on revenge for the murder of his wife, ‘It wasn’t a very developed idea in those films. We never really saw Bond go for revenge before.’39 He felt their new tale was ‘something to make Bond bite’.40 The producer explained that the film’s ‘thrust is that Bond loses his professional objectivity because of his vendetta. In a sense, it’s the awakening in him of the realisation that when he loses his objectivity, he begins to make things worse for himself. That makes for a rather impassioned, exciting film.’41 When Bond goes out on his own for revenge, he becomes professionally compromised, leading to him being stripped of his licence to kill. This incident gave the film its initial title, Licence Revoked.
As had been the trend throughout the eighties, the writers cherry-picked the work of Ian Fleming. Wilson recounted, ‘I re-read the Ian Fleming novels from time to time and I remembered THE HILDEBRAND RARITY had this character Milton Krest, a sort of brash American with his ship, the Wavekrest. So he’s worked into the script, different from Fleming’s Krest but the essence is there. And we include a scene from LIVE AND LET DIE which wasn’t in the screenplay for that film.’42 Wilson is referring to Felix Leiter who is maimed by being fed to sharks and left for dead with the macabre note, ‘He disagreed with something that ate him.’43 In addition, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was alluded to as Wilson included ‘a reference, but very indirect, to Bond being married before. It’s sort of bittersweet.’44
THE HILDEBRAND RARITY was published as one of the short stories in the FOR YOUR EYES ONLY collection in 1960. After a mission in the Seychelles, Bond goes on a cruise with a Humphrey Bogart-esque rich American called Milton Krest and his pliant English wife, Liz. The trip is ostensibly a search for the Hildebrand Rarity, a scarce fish. During the trip, it becomes clear that Liz is in an abusive relationship. Her husband whips her with the tail of a stingray, which he calls ‘the Corrector’. Eventually they find the fish, but not before causing a minor ecological disaster. The following morning Bond finds Milton Krest dead with the Hildebrand Rarity shoved in his mouth. He quickly throws the body overboard and clears up any evidence. With no proof of foul play, it will be assumed Krest fell drunkenly overboard and Liz Krest will be a free woman.
Richard Maibaum had been a ‘loyal and pioneering member’45 of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and during the development process in 1988, the WGA went on strike. He had worked with Michael Wilson on the story but could not participate in the actual writing of the screenplay. Wilson said of Maibaum, ‘We’ve worked a long time together over the years, and I didn’t feel I wanted to go through an arbitration. I told him I would be happy to share credit, and he said wonderful. He was put in a difficult spot, and I wasn’t prepared to make it more difficult.’46
In what became his last 007 assignment, Richard Maibaum reflected on how writing the James Bond films had changed:
The first one was in 1962 and you could be more leisurely. You could have more dialogue scenes and by that happening, you had an opportunity to project a full characterisation of the people. That has slowly begun to tail off, because the action demands that you must move so fast that you haven’t got time for leisurely characterisation. It’s something I regret, because the only way you can forge a characterisation is by dialogue. There’s no time for it today and I think that has gradually happened over the years to all action pictures.47
The veteran scribe felt ‘one thing about the Bonds is that you never know what to expect until you’ve seen them in front of a packed audience, 25 per cent of which is kids. Then you get the whole effect. You get the people who talk back to the screen, those who laugh and those who shout. It’s really amazing to see Bond pictures in front of that kind of audience and I’m continually surprised by the reaction.’48
In late November 1988, for the first time ever, the title of a Bond film was changed midway through production. The sixteenth 007 film would now be known as Licence to Kill, the British spelling of ‘Licence’ causing comment from American critics when the film was released there. The original title ‘Licence Revoked’ was altered when tests revealed that a large number of people did not know what ‘revoked’ meant.49
The pre-title sequence begins with Bond en route to Felix Leiter’s wedding to Della Churchill in Key West, Florida. On the way, they receive urgent news that drug lord Franz Sanchez has been lured out of his protective jurisdiction to take back his wayward girlfriend, Lupe Lamora. Bond, Leiter and his colleague, Sharkey, race by DEA helicopter to apprehend Sanchez by fishing him from the skies. Sanchez is then detained in Quantico, but after bribing FBI agent Ed Killifer is sprung in an elaborate scheme planned by American accomplice Milton Krest. Sanchez, aided by his henchmen Perez, Braun and knife-wielding Dario, exacts brutal revenge for his brief capture by killing Della and maiming Leiter. Aided by Sharkey, Bond hunts down Sanchez’s inside man, who he discovers is Killifer and kills him. Bond is now forcibly detained by MI6 agents who take him to Ernest Hemmingway’s home to face a severe reprimand from M. Bond’s activities, including the death of Killifer, have worried his American hosts. M orders 007 cease his private vendetta, but Bond refuses, leading to his licence to kill being revoked. He eludes his own organisation and continues on his personal vendetta. Bond intercedes on a drug/money exchange between Krest and Sanchez, making off with $5 million of Sanchez’s funds. Bond meets Leiter’s contact, Pam Bouvier, a CIA contract pilot and seasoned agent with huge inside knowledge of Sanchez’s operation. They team up and fly to Isthmus City, the fictional Latin American state ostensibly run by President Hector Lopez, but really corrupted by Sanchez with the help of disgraced financial whizz kid Truman-Lodge. Equipped unofficially in the field by Q, who has been tipped off by Moneypenny, Bond attempts to assassinate Sanchez but gets tangled up in a Hong Kong narcotics sting and fails. Bond manipulates Sanchez into believing he is an ally and slowly sows seeds of doubt into the organisation, turning Sanchez on his own team, resulting in the brutal execution of Krest. Bond discovers Sanchez is planning a vast expansion of his drug empire by using modern marketing methods to sell narcotics franchises to the Far East. Sanchez uses televangelist Professor Joe Butcher to send coded broadcasts allowing criminal customers to communicate the quantity and price of large drug orders. When Bond failed to kill Sanchez, he inadvertently fouled up an attempt by Bouvier to repatriate Stinger missiles which are being used to threaten the skies. Bouvier had been dealing with Heller, Sanchez’s head of security, in return for immunity. There are wider consequences at stake than just Bond’s thirst for revenge. Bond finally confronts Sanchez in his drug laboratory disguised as the headquarters of Butcher’s Olimpatec Meditation Institute. Sanchez reveals he can ship vast quantities of cocaine, dissolved in gasoline. An initial convoy of four Kenworth tanker trucks sets off after Bond destroys the drug plant. A fight to the death between Bond and Sanchez takes place on the tankers as they weave through a desolate mountain pass. Bond sets a petrol-soaked Sanchez ablaze with a lighter given to him by Felix Leiter at the wedding.
Timothy Dalton liked the portrayal of Bond in the screenplay, ‘I think the story is based on something personal. He’s still the same man, only here he’s driven less objectively and professionally than he might be if he was working on a mission or a job. It comes from a personal source, but of course he’s still Bond.’50 Dalton felt:
The film is a different kind of film – more straightforward in its motive. Daylights operated on quite a few levels of deception and intrigue. There’s a fundamental course for aggression here and lots of blocks to the fulfillment of that. Licence to Kill is about vengeance, retribution and setting a wrong – a personal grievance – right, but it broadens, expands and takes on a larger perspective. Ultimately, as in all good Bond films, good does triumph over evil on a better basis than just one of personal revenge. I mean, one’s own scope, one’s own awareness of how he’s behaving is enlarged and is brought back to something that is much more calculating and striving for a good end.51
Dalton understood:
The movies themselves had the evolution. You could see the evolution between Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. You could see development, but they were still within a similar area. But even Connery’s last film was completely different from, say, From Russia With Love. They were two different entities and therefore perhaps required different kinds of performances. The more the films developed into technological extravaganzas and light-hearted comedy spoofs, the more removed they became from the early Bonds. In Licence to Kill, too, I hope you see a different Bond.52
Michael Wilson agreed, ‘Timothy gives us a different direction to go in, I think the films with Roger emphasised his talents. For Timothy, a gritty, more reality-based piece is the way to go. Giving him one-liners won’t play to his strong suit. He plays it fairly straight.’53 Wilson went on to say, ‘I think that Licence to Kill was tailormade for Timothy Dalton’s style.’54
Robert Davi, who played villain, Franz Sanchez, remembered meeting Cubby’s oldest daughter Tina, who was a fan of the children’s film The Goonies (1985)55 which featured the actor. Davi recounted Tina ‘knew I was born in Astoria Queens [Cubby’s hometown]’56 and invited Robert to meet her father and the pair hit it off immediately.57 Davi then appeared as a Palestinian in television filmTerrorist on Trial. ‘Richard Maibaum was watching it and called up Cubby straight away. They called [me] the next day.’58 The actor felt he had the inside track on the role of the Bond villain, ‘I’d done my first film with Sinatra. Sinatra was friends with Cubby.’59 Indeed Davi and Cubby made the name of the character an in-joke, ‘I used to have lunches with Cubby Broccoli and Sidney Korshak and Frank Sinatra. Franz Sanchez. Frank Sinatra. F. S. That was a cute nod. There was always talk about him being a Bond villain.’60
Davi recalled, ‘They set up a meeting with Timothy. It was at Cubby’s office at MGM in Culver City. They saw that chemistry was going to be interesting between the two of us.’61 Davi was cast but was warned other agents with bigger name clients would cloud the choice, ‘Of course, they’ll be a lot of noise on the street.’62 Davi put a lot of detail into his characterisation, ‘We didn’t want a heavy duty accent but a flavour of that world. I got in touch with people from Columbia, Medellin and was inspired by the Columbian music, folk customs, their rhythm and some of the language. I worked on [the lines] in Spanish to distil the accent. I wanted to go authentic [as it] deepens [the portrayal]. Then I took off some of the accent so that it would be more accessible.’63 Davi added some characteristics of his own, ‘They knew I liked cigars so Sanchez had the Dunhill.’64
Carey Lowell, up for the role of Pam Bouvier, recalled she was asked to audition for:
A tough CIA agent in a bar. I showed up to the audition in a leather jacket and jeans thinking this is my tough girl image. They took one look at me and said, ‘No, that’s not what we had in mind. It’s a Bond girl remember? You need to go out and find a sexy dress and come back and we’ll put you on tape.’ So that weekend I went and looked around a mall and I found a hot pink, trashy, stretchy, tight halter dress with a dip from the neck down. I put it on and went in and they were like, ‘That’s much better.’ I met Cubby and Barbara and Michael Wilson. After meeting them, they gave me the thumbs up. I had short hair which sort of threw them. Not a lot of Bond women had short bobbed hair.65
Lowell got herself physically in great shape for the role, ‘I tried to exercise and be incredibly fit. I have to confess to not doing a bunch of research in terms of CIA agents.’66
Actress Talisa Soto remembered her journey to the role of Lupe, Sanchez’s wayward girlfriend. She did screentests of key scenes from the film: the Sanchez whipping scene, meeting Bond on the Wavekrest and Lupe dealing Bond losing blackjack hands at Sanchez’s casino.67 Casting directors Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins had compiled a list of girls who tested opposite Davi standing in as 007, ‘I got to be James Bond to seventeen of the most beautiful women from around the world, different actresses and models. We had the screentest at Cubby’s house.’68 John Glen saw a freshness in Talisa, ‘She had good ideas and responded to direction very well.’69 Glen noted that initially MGM felt the part was ‘a little sketchy, underwritten. We made her the kind of girl that has to have a man around. She’s always up to her little tricks. We made her a scheming kind of woman.’70 Lupe is supposed to be the winner of the Miss Galaxy beauty contest, fixed for her by Sanchez. But Soto took inspiration from other areas of her character, ‘I really focussed on her being a well-known blackjack dealer. I did some research. I went to Las Vegas and to this one card dealing school. It was a two-hour crash course for blackjack dealers. I was practising every night I can tell you.’71 Talisa Soto also sought to be original so ‘did not go back and do any research on the other Bond girls, because I wanted to create my own character from scratch.’72
For the first time in the series’ history, the producers rehired an actor to reprise the role of Felix Leiter. David Hedison, who had played the part in Live and Let Die, ‘had a ball for eight weeks jumping out of helicopters, shooting guns.’73 He was in a unique position to compare Bonds, ‘Roger was a clown, a lot of fun, always kidding around on set. Tim is much more earnest and serious. Off the set, we got on very well. I found him to be a remarkable person to work with, very caring, very conscious of the scene. He gave a lot to his fellow actors. He was not playing the big star.’74 Hedison could also compare directors, ‘John [Glen] is very quiet, very unemotional, very caring for his actors, and he has a wonderful even temper. I hardly remember what Guy did. He got it done and did a very good job.’75
Benicio del Toro played Dario in an early role of what would go on to become an Oscar-winning career. He remembered, ‘I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In my room, I had a lobby card of Thunderball so I grew up liking James Bond. I met Cubby Broccoli. The experience was fantastic.’76 Wayne Newton, a famous Las Vegas entertainer gave up a $1 million a week77 to play corrupt evangelist Professor Joe Butcher for a week in Mexico. According to Michael Wilson, ‘he said it was like having a vacation.’78
Veteran television actor Anthony Zerbe was cast as Milton Krest:
I try to centre the man in terms of things going on around him. He never really has a happy moment in the film. From the very first appearance of Bond, things go from bad to worse so we are not seeing a man at the height of his powers. We are seeing someone buffeted by the slings and arrows of Mr. Bond. I became a villain because of my eyebrows and my name. I couldn’t resist the offer because I’m so often a villain and this is the ultimate villain’s movie.79
President Hector Lopez of Isthmus City was played by Pedro Armendariz Jr., marking the first time two generations had starred as significant characters in a Bond film. Armendariz’s father Pedro played Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love. Rounding up the villains were Don Stroud as Colonel Heller, Sanchez’s head of security, and Anthony Starke as Truman Lodge, a Wall Street whizzkid.
By his fourth appearance as M, Robert Brown knew the character well, ‘He’s very much a Royal Navy product but with an uncanny steeliness and resilience to run this business. He’s got a personal feeling for his agents, because although he is a toughie – he’ll make decisions that’ll appal anybody – he is still worried about his people. Which is a Royal Naval thing.’80 Brown enjoyed the rarity of leaving the confines of Pinewood Studios to shoot his key scene with James Bond on the balcony of Ernest Hemmingway’s house in Key West, ‘For actors this is a bonus.’81
In Licence to Kill, Q was given his biggest role yet, coming to 007’s rescue in Isthmus City. Desmond Llewelyn appreciated he was able to do some good character work because he could play longer scenes, ‘There are so many times when there is a pause or a look that needs to be kept in. There are a few scenes which had that element – the friendship between the two men.’82 A scene where Q throws away field equipment – a radio broom – after having admonished Bond for such ill-treatment of his gadgets was, for Llewelyn, ‘just sort of instinctual. It just felt right.’83 The role paid off financially too, as the actor recalled, ‘I was on location in Mexico and for the first time in my life I made some real money out of a Bond film.’84
After The Living Daylights Caroline Bliss felt, ‘There was definitely an impression that I was now Miss Moneypenny, if I didn’t blow it.’85 For her brief appearance set in London, the actress travelled to Mexico, ‘I remember thinking this is really sad, it’s only three lines, I can’t really do anything with her at all. The scene took about a day to film. I wasn’t well, I immediately came down with flu. I was pretty dosed up. I wasn’t happy I had gone all the way out there and I wasn’t filming at my best.’86
John Glen once again assembled his core creative team: Production Designer Peter Lamont, Director of Photography Alec Mills, Stunt Co-ordinator Paul Weston, an aerial stunt team lead by B.J. Worth and vehicle stunts headed by Rémy Julienne.
New to the film was the Miami Vice costume designer, Jodie Tillen. Dalton had strong ideas on Bond’s look and opted for even more casual apparel for this film. He fought Tillen’s notion of dressing Bond in pastels.87
In early 1988 the unit set up Licence to Kill at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. Peter Lamont remembered the facility had seen better days and spent several weeks refurbishing and building additional workshops.88 Lamont even had to level the studio floors before he could even begin constructing sets. Although conditions were not on a par with Pinewood, Lamont found ‘the Mexican construction crews absolutely wonderful.’89 As Lamont built the first interior set he witnessed the craft of the workmen, ‘The construction crew had built some louvre doors, which they polished. It was like glass. I said, “We’ll leave the doors like that!” I just couldn’t paint them white. After that everything that was wood was hand polished.’90 The high altitude (at about 7,500ft high) and pollution caused health problems among the unit. Peter Lamont had a lot of trouble at Churubusco with the altitude.91 Tom Pevsner had felt Desmond Llewelyn would not be able to reprise his role due to health risks but Glen allowed the veteran actor to stay.92
Principal photography began on 18 July 1988 and Cubby Broccoli opened the proceedings with the first take.93 Lamont recalled that altitude sickness struck again when Cubby was taken ill shortly into production.94 He later returned to the production in Acapulco.95
The first scenes shot were Franz Sanchez’s entrance to the film where he punishes his errant girlfriend, Lupe Lamora, by whipping her with a stingray tail. Davi recalled, ‘They wanted to show tears in her eyes. It was a sexual dance the two of them do all the time. I wanted it to come off much more sensually but they wouldn’t allow it.’96 Behind the scenes, Robert Davi became leader of the gang, ‘Talisa, me and Benicio hung out. I embodied Sanchez. I looked at Dario almost like a younger brother. When [at the end of the picture] he is getting chewed up in that machine [which processed the cocaine bricks], I remember Benicio and I had a conversation about that moment. I suggested to him, “Who’s the closest person to Dario? Sanchez!”’97 Del Toro cried Sanchez’s name out when he did his death scene.98 A practical joke involving some burnt cork on the make-up table and actor Anthony Starke, brought Davi to the strict attention of Barbara Broccoli, ‘The next thing I know [she is saying],“Davi, what have you done to Anthony Starke?” She was like the Mother Superior. I remember getting scolded for that.’99
Lowell, on the other hand, ‘mostly hung out with the art department, they were the fun people. They were the people that shot tequila at every meal. It’s medicinal in Mexico City to have a shot of tequila.’100 Davi recalled the said medicine played a large part when he and Dalton were off set, ‘[Timothy] was surprised that I had a knowledge of the bard. Instead of playing chess, we would hit the tequila, look at the ladies and spew forth the poetry.’101
There were some painful incidents according to Lowell, but not for her, ‘I do remember that one scene where Timothy has got his hands bound and he’s hanging over the coke grinder and he’s about to be ground alive and Benicio reaches over and tries to cut his bindings off to make him fall into the grinder and he sliced Tim’s finger. We had to stop shooting and Tim had to go and get stitches. Benicio felt very badly about it.’102
Davi’s intention was to play the part as humanly as possible, ‘When Timothy and I met, we talked about CASINO ROYALE. How Bond and the villain are mirror images of each other. Bond and Sanchez are mirror images of each other. It’s a heavyweight title match. Bring Bondian elements to the villain and villainous elements to Bond. You had a shared nuance.’103 Dalton approved of Davi, ‘One of my three favourite villains anyway was Gert Fröbe in Goldfinger. I thought his performance was magnificent. Davi, too, is moving towards something fairly unique in the Bond films. Davi [is] an actor of a very deep and real power and the work that I’ve seen him do so far is filled with a sense of danger – it’s being played realistically.’104
Carey Lowell remembered her own preparation, ‘I had to go and do a swimsuit test at Cubby’s house. Cubby had a gorgeous house with a giant pool. They wanted to see what it looked like when it got wet and they wanted to make sure it wasn’t completely see through.’105 Costume Designer Jodie Tillen also dressed Pam Bouvier in an evening dress inspired by an outfit Talisa Soto had worn to her audition. Dana had spotted it and suggested they use something similar. In the film, Bouvier would remove the bottom half to reveal a hidden beretta.106 Carey Lowell had less fond memories of the dress, ‘It weighed a ton. At one of my fittings, as I got zipped into it, my skin got caught in the zipper which was excruciatingly painful. They had to cut it off me.’107
Lowell’s natural short hair was also explained, ‘They put me in a wig for the first scene when I go and meet Felix Leiter. And then I go and I transform myself. I go from being Pam Bouvier, the CIA agent, to being Ms. Kennedy, Bond’s secretary, who has gone for a makeover which is how they explained that in the film.’108 The joke about President Kennedy’s wife’s maiden name changing to her married name was from another era.
Lowell observed of Dalton, ‘He was a Shakespearean actor who had agreed to star in James Bond. With the kind of theatrical experience he had, [Timothy] made Bond a little bit more serious, more realistic. More of a real person.’109 Dalton thought at first of the antagonistic relationship between Bond and Bouvier, ‘It’s faithful to the spirit of Ian Fleming’s books. It usually starts with some woman he perhaps doesn’t want to be tangled up with, but through the story, getting to know her better and perhaps either endangering himself in order to protect her or finding that she sometimes protects him.’110 Lowell remembered their studio-bound moonlit seduction scene on a boat, ‘I was so wound up from the scene, I’d just been shot in the back and I was kissing [Timothy] too rapturously. He told me to take it easy.’111
Another kiss was more amusing, as Davi recalled, ‘[Sanchez’s pet] iguana didn’t like Talisa Soto. Every time she went near it, it would freak out. I said the reason why is it knows she’s betraying me. There’s a cute little moment that I improvised when I gave it a kiss.’112
Other scenes were shot outside Mexico City. For the finale, Joe Butcher’s Olimpatec Meditation Institute was a vast concrete construction near Toluca.113 The location was an Indian ceremonial centre based on the former corn storage silos the Indians used.114 It was built by the former president of the Indians who lived in the region but it lay untouched for a decade.115 Lowell thought, ‘It was the most bizarre monument in the middle of nowhere. I just remember hanging out there going, “This is the weirdest place I’ve ever been.” We had to drive for hours to get there.’116
The sequence was supposed to have been shot in a university amphitheatre complex in Mexico City, but according to Michael Wilson, ‘When you wanted to film, the students were having demonstrations – it was right about the time of the elections, so all that fell through.’117 Davi remembered legendary fixer and attorney Sidney Korshak visiting the set in Mexico, ‘There were some issues sometimes and they were working them out with Sid.’118
In Acapulco the unit used Arabesque, the magnificent white marble home of the Baron de Portinova, to double for Sanchez’s abode. The glare from the marble caused problems with filming.119 Alec Mills commented on the ‘Boy’s Own’ feel of the piece explaining, ‘There is a Bond look. It’s the little splash of colour here and there.’120 Lupe Lamora is seen lounging around Sanchez’s home reading. Soto recalled, ‘They gave me a flimsy little book. I said, “No, Lupe has things she’s working on, things up her sleeve. She wants to take over. Give me something about power.”’121 Key crew members stayed in guest suites around Arabesque and were waited on by sixty staff.122 This was the setting for the film’s final moment where Bond jumps from a balcony into a pool and drags Bouvier in the water to win back her affections. John Glen recalled tempers frayed with his leading man during the night shooting of this sequence. It had been towards the end of an arduous schedule. Glen was tired and suffering from food poisoning.123
The main unit then moved to Key West, Florida at the height of summer 1988. Lamont spent three days with experienced Production Manager Ned Kopp, sourcing all the locations bar one, ‘We hadn’t found Leiter’s house. We went to a hotel and had a chat with the manager and he said, “Oh you want so-and-so’s house, it’s just over there.” We went to where this strange fellow lived and it was one of these shotgun houses. It was wonderful, it was the part. So we said, “Would you be interested in having James Bond here?” he said, “Yes, certainly.” We went to the airport, picked up John and Michael, and we had found everything.’124
For the pre-title sequence, Corkey Fornof returned to the Bond fold, ‘Cubby asked me can we take an airplane out of the air and I said, “Yes, we can. I’ve got a stunt I’ve been working on for years.”’125 After three weeks’ practising in Miami, Fornof had developed the routine. He worked out how to drop a person by wire from a US Coast Guard helicopter on to a Cessna aeroplane, and for that person to loop a cable lasso around the Cessna’s tail, so that the chopper could fly off carrying the plane with the nose pointing down.126 It took three weeks to prepare over the skies of Miami and Fornof had to meet with US Coast Guard chiefs in Washington DC beforehand to obtain the requisite permissions. The stunt had such potential that members of the CIA showed up to film the scene too.127 Fornof ‘wrote a test program – taking our stuntman out to lower him on to the plane’s tail on a wire using sky-diving skills. We developed a safety measure for me and the helicopter. The most dangerous part? There was no ’chute on the wire.’128
Paul Weston hired a barefooted waterskier to perform the stunt where Bond escapes Krest’s frogman after crashing the drug exchange. The seaplane could not take off with the drag of the barefooted skier, who had to then be equipped with transparent waterskis.129
The final showdown between Bond and Sanchez on a convoy of Kenworth trucks was shot on 200km of road between Mexicali and Tijuana in the mountain range La Rumorosa.130 The second unit led by Arthur Wooster, included vehicle stunt team headed by Rémy Julienne with action stunts co-ordinated by Paul Weston, took over seven weeks to complete the sequence.131 The crew were spooked by a series of strange incidents on the desolate location including one of the trucks jackknifing and crashing, which delayed the shooting.132 Another accident occurred when one of the trucks crashed spectacularly into the rockface. John Glen kept the shot in the final film.133 For one scene, a massive explosion was staged and when the footage was viewed, a giant flame in the shape of a hand could be seen reaching out.134
John Glen recalled the Kenworth truck sequence was ‘a scene I’m very proud of because I’d been developing it for eight years. Originally I devised it as a pre-title sequence.’135 The Kenworth trucks were specially built by Rémy Julienne and his team to enable them to perform wheelies and drive on one side.136 Each vehicle cost $100,000 and ten were required.137
Bouvier pilots a plane to assist 007 during the tanker chase. Lowell was amused, ‘Corkey doubled me in the plane with a wig and a dress. It was very funny to see him standing there in my wig and my dress. We were in the middle of nowhere in Mexicali, Mexico.’138 Warm temperatures meant the air was almost too thin to support the plane while travelling as slowly as the tanker truck, the plane being on the verge of stalling, necessitating multiple takes.139
Fornof, in drag, was later assaulted in jest by local Mexican security wielding AK-47 rifles.140 An angry Barbara Broccoli used the same firmness she had scolded Robert Davi with to dress down Mexican authorities.141 For all his previous derring-do, Fornof felt that moment ‘was the biggest danger in my life.’142 Paul Weston doubled Robert Davi for Sanchez’s final scene, when, soaked in cocaine-infused petrol, he is set ablaze by Bond disappearing into a fireball. Dressed in two heavy firesuits, with ice cold anti-flame gel, Weston had to use bottled oxygen.143 He only had three minutes worth of air but, after getting into costume and protective gear, only half that for filming, Weston had to stagger across a carefully worked out path before they extinguished him.144 Prior to being set ablaze, Weston remembered, ‘Timothy, looking at me, a bit white-faced.’145 Paul Weston eloquently set out the stuntperson’s profession, ‘We all want to be in the industry because we are creative. A writer creates with his pen, a painter with a paintbrush, but if a nib breaks he gets another pen, if the brush wears out he gets another brush. We create with our bodies and we only get one body. So you have to take care of it and use it as best you can.’146
The harder edge of the film had the director John Glen and Cubby Broccoli locked in battle with the British censor.147 Key scenes of controversy included Sanchez whipping Lupe Lamora, the feeding of Leiter to the sharks – performed by a one-legged stuntman148 – and Sanchez’s explosive demise.149 Unusually, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) saw a rough cut of the film as early as February 1989.150 A series of screenings for the censor continued until June 1989 when it was watched by the president, James Ferman, six examiners and assorted young people aged fifteen to twenty.151 Finally the film was passed as a 15 certificate, which meant no one under that age could see it at the cinema. The BBFC held firm and it was reported unanimously ‘that 15 is the correct catergory and [there is] no support at all for reclassifying as 12 even with cuts.’152 It impacted a key demographic for the film and the release was too early for the new 12 classification introduced for Batman released in the UK in August 1989.
During the editing process other scenes were excised. When Bond arrives in Isthmus City and watches coverage of Sanchez on television, he moodily drinks vodka and retrieves his Walther PPK from a hidden pouch. This latter moment appeared in the teaser trailer for the film. A sequence of Lupe Lamora depositing Bond on the beach (after helping him escape from Sanchez’s home) was also cut. A specially filmed teaser trailer featuring a digital watch counting down to 007 was storyboarded and was shot by Billy Manger of Seiniger Advertising Inc. after it was approved by Cubby Broccoli.153
John Barry was suffering from ill-health and post-production was delayed in the hope that he would return, but he didn’t. In keeping with the recent action trend, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon composer Michael Kamen was hired.154 A composer with one foot in the rock world, Kamen also pitched a title track for the film with Eric Clapton and original James Bond theme guitarist, Vic Flick.155 Kamen admired Cubby, ‘If I wore a hat, I’d take it off [to him]. The Broccoli crowd was very congenial and close. I grew to be friendly with Timothy Dalton,’156 and the actor attended some scoring sessions.157 Michael Wilson was reticent about the Clapton track, ‘We brought together a lot of people and they all worked very hard at it. We didn’t really break any new ground.’158 Other artists, like techno-pop band The Art of Noise (an outfit comprising of, among others, producer Trevor Horn and future Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley) and funk band Level 42, submitted tracks.159 MCA, the record label, who would release the soundtrack, secured the deal by impressing the film-makers with a complete package, including a number of songs.160 A rock song for the Barrelhead Bar, ‘Dirty Love’, was performed by Tim Feehan and written by Steve Dubin and Jeffrey Pescetto. A calypso, ‘Wedding Party’, was performed by Ivory and written by Jimmy Duncan and Phillip Brennan. The end title song, ‘If You Asked Me To’ was written by noted songwriter Diane Warren and performed by soul diva Patti Labelle. The MCA deal was provisional on the company providing a suitable singer for the title track.161
The title track, ‘Licence to Kill’, would be sung by soul legend Gladys Knight, although Patti Labelle recorded a version of the song too.162 Barbara Broccoli noted:
For this movie we decided to go with a female vocalist. The particular song and the particular singer fit this movie best. It’s because a) it’s a far more serious movie and b) because the female character in the movie is played by Carey Lowell and part of her character development is that she is a tough, strong independent woman who meets up with Bond, is attracted to him and by the end you have a nice relationship and there’s another woman who you feel is possibly threatening the relationship, thus the lyric of the song. She has the licence to kill anyone that gets in the way.163
Interestingly, the title song was originally credited to Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen and Walter Afanasieff. However, later Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley and John Barry were added as composers. Commented Barry, ‘They ripped off the opening bars to “Goldfinger”.’164
Maurice Binder’s titles were based on images of photography and gambling. The actress in the titles was Diana Lee-Hsu who also played Loti, a Hong Kong narcotics agent, in the film.165 The title sequence for Licence to Kill begins with a girl holding up an Olympus camera. The designer liked the hands on one take but the face on another. He ended up slightly fogging a rotoscoped image to get the best of both takes.166 As usual, Binder’s work was late but this time back-up titles were prepared by another Binder protégé and end-title artist, Pauline Hume.167 John Glen also confirmed that a photo-montage of Leiter’s wedding as an alternative title sequence was discussed.168
On 13 June 1989 the royal world charity première of Licence to Kill took place, by now ritually, at the Odeon Leicester Square, again in the presence of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. All expectations were for a smash performance when it opened in the US one month later. However, the film stalled in America, grossing just $34 million. Worldwide the film fared much better, grossing $156 million. On a budget of $36 million, the film was still immensely profitable.
The commercial disappointment of Licence to Kill in the States was put down to a web of factors: huge competition for the summer box office, a muddled, inconsistent and poorly funded marketing campaign, as well as reduced box office admissions due to the restrictive rating. It was fair to say that the constant flux at MGM/UA had not helped matters with regard to promoting and funding the roll-out of the film.
Timothy Dalton would remain the Bond of record. In 1990, after the dust had settled, publicist Saul Cooper said, ‘We’re finding more and more people who feel that if we get the tone of the films right, [Dalton] makes quite an acceptable Bond. Among the many intangibles we’re currently facing, he isn’t one of them. He will definitely be in the next one and the ones after that.’169
1 David Puttnam with Neil Watson, The Undeclared War, Harper Collins Publishers, 1997, p. 312
2 New 4–Wall Tactic At Pinewood Puts U.K. Lots On Guard, Weekly Variety, 06.05.1987
3 New 4–Wall Tactic At Pinewood Puts U.K. Lots On Guard, Weekly Variety, 06.05.1987
4 MGM/UA Officially Separate Again by Jane Galbraith, Daily Variety, 12.07.1988
5 MGM/UA Officially Separate Again by Jane Galbraith, Daily Variety, 12.07.1988
6 ‘New Tax, Pound Weigh Heavily on UK Lensing’ by Don Groves, Daily Variety, 09.03.1988
7 ‘New Tax, Pound Weigh Heavily on UK Lensing’ by Don Groves, Daily Variety, 09.03.1988
8 ‘New Tax, Pound Weigh Heavily on UK Lensing’ by Don Groves, Daily Variety, 09.03.1988
9 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 189
10 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 189
11 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 06.05.2014
12 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 191
13 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
14 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
15 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
16 John Rhys–Davies interview, Starlog, August 1989
17 GoldenEye screenplay by Michael France, 1–94, First Draft
18 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
19 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
20 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 11.04.2001
21 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 11.04.2001
22 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
23 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 11.04.2001
24 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
25 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
26 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
27 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
28 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
29 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
30 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
31 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
32 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
33 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
34 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
35 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
36 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
37 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
38 James Bond 007 Licence To Kill by Mark A. Altman, Cinemafantastique Vol..19 No.5, July 1989
39 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
40 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
41 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
42 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
43 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
44 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
45 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 189
46 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
47 Licensed To Thrill by Edward Gross, Starlog Yearbook, Vol. 5 1989
48 Licensed To Thrill by Edward Gross, Starlog Yearbook, Vol. 5 1989
49 Sally Hibbin, The Making of Licence to Kill, Hamlyn, 1989, p. 7
50 ‘The Private Bond’ by Dan Yakir, Starlog, August 1989
51 ‘The Private Bond’ by Dan Yakir, Starlog, August 1989
52 ‘The Private Bond’ by Dan Yakir, Starlog, August 1989
53 James Bond’s Final Mission? by Lee Goldberg, Starlog #146, September 1989
54 ‘Serious Bondage’ by Gary Russell, Starburst, July 1989
55 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
56 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
57 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
58 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
59 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
60 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
61 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
62 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
63 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
64 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
65 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
66 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
67 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
68 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
69 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
70 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
71 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
72 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
73 ‘Licensed To Die?’ by Lee Goldberg, Starlog, August 1989
74 ‘Licensed To Die?’ by Lee Goldberg, Starlog, August 1989
75 Benicio Del Toro on Savages and Licence to Kill, www.craveonline.co.uk, 16.11.2012
76 ‘A Visit To The James Bond Classroom’ by Raymond Benson, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
77 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
78 Sally Hibbin, The Making Of Licence To Kill, Hamlyn, 1989. p. 39
79 ‘Report From The Set Of Licence To Kill’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #16, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Winter 1989
80 ‘Report From The Set Of Licence To Kill’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #16, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Winter 1989
81 Desmond Llewelyn: Authors’ interview, 04.1999
82 Desmond Llewelyn: Authors’ interview, 04.1999
83 Alan Barnes and Marcus Hearn, Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang! The Unofficial James Bond Film Companion, B.T. Batsford, a member of Chrysalis Books plc, 2nd Edition, 2000, p. 178
84 Caroline Bliss: Authors’ interview, 19.04.2014
85 Caroline Bliss: Authors’ interview, 19.04.2014
86 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
87 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
88 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
89 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
90 ‘Production Design For That Bond LOOK’ by Nora Lee, American Cinematographer Vol. 7 No. 8, August 1989
91 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
92 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 196
93 Sally Hibbin, The Making Of Licence To Kill, Hamlyn, 1989. p. 7
94 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
95 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
96 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
97 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
98 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
99 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
100 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
101 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
102 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
103 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
104 ‘The Private Bond’ by Dan Yakir, Starlog, August 1989
105 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
106 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
107 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
108 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
109 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
110 ‘The Private Bond’ by Dan Yakir, Starlog, August 1989
111 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
112 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
113 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 201
114 ‘A Visit To The James Bond Classroom’ by Raymond Benson, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
115 ‘A Visit To The James Bond Classroom’ by Raymond Benson, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
116 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
117 ‘A Visit To The James Bond Classroom’ by Raymond Benson, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
118 Robert Davi: Authors’ interview, 01.05.2015
119 ‘Licence To Kill – No.16 and Counting’ by Nora Lee, American Cinematographer Vol. 7 No. 8, August 1989
120 ‘Licence To Kill – No.16 and Counting’ by Nora Lee, American Cinematographer Vol. 7 No. 8, August 1989
121 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
122 John Glen, For My Eyes Only, B.T. Batsford, 2001, p. 189
123 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 11.04.2001
124 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview, 06.10.2000
125 ‘James Bond doesn’t do CGI: Inside 007’s amazing real–world action’ by Gavin Clarke, www.theregister.co.uk, 25.10.215
126 ‘James Bond doesn’t do CGI: Inside 007’s amazing real–world action’ by Gavin Clarke, www.theregister.co.uk, 25.10.215
127 ‘James Bond doesn’t do CGI: Inside 007’s amazing real–world action’ by Gavin Clarke, www.theregister.co.uk, 25.10.215
128 ‘James Bond doesn’t do CGI: Inside 007’s amazing real–world action’ by Gavin Clarke, www.theregister.co.uk, 25.10.215
129 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
130 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
131 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
132 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
133 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
134 ‘Incident at La Rumorosa’ by Kevin Desmond, Eyepiece, Vol.. 10 No. 4, June 1989
135 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
136 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
137 ‘Chatting At The Plaza’ by Richard Schenkman, Bondage #17, The James Bond 007 Fan Club, Summer 1989
138 Carey Lowell: Authors’ interview, 26.05.2015
139 ‘James Bond doesn’t do CGI: Inside 007’s amazing real–world action’ by Gavin Clarke, www.theregister.co.uk, 25.10.215
140 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
141 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
142 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
143 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
144 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
145 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
146 Paul Weston: Authors’ interview, 08.04.2015
147 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 06.05.2014
148 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 06.05.2014
149 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 06.05.2014
150 Case Study: Licence To Kill by Edward Lamberti, Behind The Scenes At BBFC edited by Edward Lamberti, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 125 – 126
151 Case Study: Licence To Kill by Edward Lamberti, Behind The Scenes At BBFC edited by Edward Lamberti, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 125 – 126
152 Case Study: Licence To Kill by Edward Lamberti, Behind The Scenes At BBFC edited by Edward Lamberti, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 125 – 126
153 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
154 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
155 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 194 – 195
156 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 193
157 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 193
158 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
159 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
160 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
161 ‘For Your Ears Only’ by Chris Heath, Empire #1, June/July 1989
162 Alan Church: Authors’ interview, 02.07.2006
163 Alan Church: Authors’ interview, 02.07.2006
164 ‘Licensed To Score’ by Tom Soter, Starlog #199, February 1994
165 Alan Church: Authors’ interview, 02.07.2006
166 Alan Church: Authors’ interview, 02.07.2006
167 Pauline Hume: Authors’ interview, 07.05.2015
168 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 11.04.2001
169 ‘Bond Bombshell: 007 Goes On The Block’ by Charles Fleming, Weekly Variety, 08.08.1990