The Lost Bond Films of 1991 and 1993

If you are a 21st century fan of the Bond series, then long gaps in between films is nothing new for you. Four years between Die Another Day and Casino Royale. Four years between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. Three years between Skyfall and Spectre, and now five years until the 25th Bond flick is released in 2020. As a child of the 80s, I took for granted the fact that every other year a new 007 adventure would be released. We had five new Bond movies during that decade. By comparison, the Daniel Craig era will end with five films in the span of nearly 15 years!

When discussing a barren time during the franchise, no gap beats the seemingly interminable space between 1989’s Licence to Kill and 1995’s Goldeneye. Or in other words, the lost years of the Bond franchise. The movie-going public missed out on Timothy Dalton’s third outing in 1991 and his potential fourth film in 1993. Dalton never did quite catch on with fans of that time. He was Daniel Craig twenty years too early. The Living Daylights did well at the box office, but his second movie LTK was crushed in the Summer of ’89. Going up against Indiana Jones, Batman, Lethal Weapon, and the Ghostbusters was a tough task. Combine the worst box office numbers in franchise history, with legal issues between EON Productions and MGM, and you have a good understanding as to why we didn’t see 007 again until Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye.

Despite all of this, Dalton’s 3rd movie was set for pre-production in early 1990 with a release date set for Summer 1991. Here’s a look at some of the official details from the script treatment:

The pre-title sequence was set in a chemical weapons laboratory in Scotland, and it involved technicians performing tests with robotic devices. One of the robots goes berserk and the building explodes. The main villain of the story is Sir Henry Lee Ching, described as ‘a brilliant and handsome thirty year old British-Chinese entrepreneur’, who is passionate about science, but doesn’t care much for mankind. Sir Henry planned to unleash a computer virus that would paralyze every military and commercial unit in the world. And of course, only one man can stop him. The climax saw Bond and Sir Henry fighting to the death, with 007 turning a welding torch in the villain’s face. 

Taking a time machine back to 1990/1991, and knowing the plot and characters, I’m going to play producer and casting director:

TITLE: Property of a Lady (1991)

TITLE SONG: “Property of a Lady” by Lisa Stansfield

LOCATIONS: Scotland, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong

SCREENWRITERS: Alfonse M. Ruggiero Jr., Michael Wilson, John Landis

DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones

Whether an action movie that sounds like a cross between Short Circuit and Double Impact would have made for a good Bond flick, who knows?! But I’m content with my casting choices.

Here is the official poster for the movie. It was hanging at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France during the 1990 film festival.

So in my alternate Bond universe, where production is running smoothly and Dalton is ready to film his fourth (and probably final) turn as the world’s most famous secret agent, what would have been his next movie? This is where Goldeneye comes in. This is also where I come in to play producer/casting director again.

Dalton never got his 1991 movie or his 1993 movie. What did he have to say about the situation?

Dalton explained: “When [the next movie] did come about, it was probably four or five years later.

“[Broccoli] asked if I would come back, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve actually changed my mind a little bit. I think that I’d love to do one.

“‘Try and take the best of the two that I have done, and consolidate them into a third.’”

Dalton continued: “And he said, quite rightly, ‘Look, Tim. You can’t do one. There’s no way, after a five-year gap between movies that you can come back and just do one. You’d have to plan on four or five.’

“And I thought, ‘Oh, no, that would be the rest of my life. Too much. Too long.’ So I respectfully declined.”

My take on all of this? As much as I would have loved to seen my cast in the original Goldeneye script… I’m glad everything worked out the way it did. Goldeneye starring Pierce Brosnan is one of my favorites. But it does go to show you that the alternate Bond universe is just as interesting as reality.