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
No. 1 of the Secret Service with those films. With the continued popularity of the James Bond films starring Roger Moore in the mid 1970s, talk of Sean Connery reprising his 007 role in the planned "James Bond of the Secret Service" and the delay in the production of Eon Productions’ "The Spy Who Loved Me", Shonteff thought he would return to the imitation James Bond field with his own film. The original title of "008 of the Secret Service" was replaced by "No. 1 of the Secret Service". Perhaps to avoid rights difficulties with producer James Ward, Shonteff replaced the name of "Charles Vine" with