James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me is the official novelization of the 1977 Eon "James Bond" film "The Spy Who Loved Me", which was itself inspired to the homonimous 1962 novel by Ian Fleming. When Ian Fleming sold the film rights to the James Bond novels to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, he only gave permission for the title "The Spy Who Loved Me" to be used. Since the screenplay for the film had nothing to do with Fleming's original novel, Eon Productions, for the first time, authorised that a novelization
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