James Bond in film process. Connery, however, was somewhat resigned to the project, lacking the enthusiasm he sported for "Thunderball". A press conference on his arrival had been tense, "soured by aggressive questioning of Connery's crumpled, jet-lagged appearance". Primary and secondary photography finished in December; the special effects filming for the space scenes were undertaken between January and March 1967, prior to the film's release on 12 June. The cinema posters for the film stated "Sean Connery IS James Bond", to distance the Eon-produced picture from the independent "Casino Royale", which had been released two months earlier. However, during the production, Connery announced that
James Bond filmography to underplay Bond's character, observing: "Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure." On another occasion, he reinforced his point: "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument." Sean Connery was the first actor to portray Bond on film in "Dr. No" (1962). An amateur bodybuilder, he had come to the attention of the Bond film producers after several appearances in British films from the late 1950s. At a muscular 6'2",