James Bond in film of the funding for the Bond films, fell into financial difficulties following the box office failure of "Heaven's Gate" (1980), bringing uncertainty to the future of the funding. The situation was resolved in May 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired United Artists. Following "For Your Eyes Only", Roger Moore had expressed a desire to stop playing James Bond. His original contract had been for three films, a requirement fulfilled with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Subsequent films had been negotiated on a film-by-film basis. The producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next actor to play Bond, which would be for
James Bond in film Never Again" had its origins in the early 1960s following the controversy over the 1961 "Thunderball" novel, which led to Kevin McClory becoming producer of the Eon Productions film of the same name. Part of the agreement between McClory and Eon was that McClory would not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years following the release of the 1965 "Thunderball". In the mid-1970s McClory again started working on a project to bring a "Thunderball" adaptation to production and, with the working title "Warhead" (a.k.a. "James Bond of the Secret Service") he brought writer Len