SPECTRE Irma Bunt, Blofeld's assistant, in his short story "Blast From the Past", which is a sequel to "You Only Live Twice". In the Eon Productions James Bond series, which began in 1962 with "Dr. No", SPECTRE plays a more prominent role. The organisation is first mentioned in "Dr. No" as the organisation for which Dr. No works. This was changed from Fleming's novels, which had Dr. No working for the USSR. In the films, SPECTRE usually replaced SMERSH as the main villains, although there is a brief reference to SMERSH in the second Eon Bond film, "From Russia with Love"
James Bond in film up the first draft script, with some inclusions from the previous writers. When Lewis Gilbert was hired to direct, he brought with him Christopher Wood to revise Maibaum's draft. The draft Wood prepared was challenged in court by Kevin McClory, who alleged infringement based on the use of what he claimed were his rights in SPECTRE and the Blofeld character. Eon disputed McClory's claim but had Wood remove the organisation and character from the script. Ken Adam returned as production designer. As no studio stages were big enough for the interior of the villain Karl Stromberg's supertanker, in March 1976