James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me since "Colonel Sun" nearly a decade earlier. Christopher Wood, himself a novelist, and who co-authored the screenplay with Richard Maibaum, was commissioned to write the book, which was given the title "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me". Wood would also novelize the screenplay for the next Bond film, "Moonraker" in 1979. The novelization and the screenplay, although both written by Wood, are somewhat different. In the novelization SMERSH has been reactivated some time before the start of the novel, and is still after James Bond. Their part in the novelization begins during the "pre-title credits" sequence, in which Bond
Filming of James Bond in the 1970s at the part-submerged wreck of the RMS "Queen Elizabeth", which acted as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The crew was small, and a stunt double was used for James Bond. The major part of principal photography started in April 1974 in Thailand. Thai locations included Bangkok, Thon Buri, Phuket and the nearby Phang Nga Province, on the islands of Ko Khao Phing Kan () and Ko Tapu (). Scaramanga's hideout is on Ko Khao Phing Kan, and Ko Tapu is often now referred to as "James Bond Island" both by locals and in tourist