James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me include the Bond girl Anya Amasova and her lover Sergei Borzov, as well as Colonel-General Nikitin, a character from Fleming's novel "From Russia, with Love" who has since become head of the KGB. Other differences include the villain, Karl Stromberg, instead being named as Sigmund Stromberg. The change of Stromberg's given name, as well as the existence of SMERSH, may be in some way due to the controversy over "Thunderball", in which Kevin McClory was made aware of certain plot points of the film "The Spy Who Loved Me". At one point the villain of the film was to be
James Bond in film up by Wilson and Maibaum. Before the pair could develop the script, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike and Maibaum was unable to continue writing, leaving Wilson to work on the script on his own. The script—initially called "Licence Revoked"—was written with Dalton's characterisation of Bond in mind; the obsession with which Bond pursues the drug lord villain Franz Sanchez on behalf of Bond's friend, the CIA/DEA agent Felix Leiter and his dead wife is seen as being because of Bond's own "brutally cut-short marriage". John Glen returned once again to direct, teaming up once more with