James Bond filmography that Connery "looks weary and bored ... he is overweight, slow-moving, and doesn't seem to be trying to create a credible character". Despite that, Benson considers that Connery "still radiates more screen presence than Roger Moore or George Lazenby". On the other hand, Pauline Kael said "Connery's James Bond is less lecherous than before and less foppish—and he's better this way". In the early 1980s producer Jack Schwartzman moved ahead with a non-Eon Bond film, following the controversy over the 1961 novel "Thunderball" and the subsequent long legal battle; the result was "Never Say Never Again". Connery accepted an offer
O.K. Connery Sabatello that Neil sounded like his brother Sean. Sabatello met Neil at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh to recruit him to play the lead role in a Eurospy film. Neil recalled when he did his screentest the crew kept saying "OK, Connery, OK" that became the title for the film. Experienced director Alberto De Martino who had previously filmed "Upperseven, the Man to Kill" and "Special Mission Lady Chaplin" (both 1966) recalled his father Romolo de Martino doing Neil's extensive makeup and problems with Neil's inexperience as an actor. He also recalled Sabatello approaching Sean Connery do to an appearance