Line #8 Trivia/Moonraker


1	!!The film
2	* BTeamSequel:
3	** Richard Maibaum didn't write the script, as the producers preferred to go solely with Christopher Wood. Instead, Maibaum worked on the Bond spoof, ''S.H.E: Security Hazards Expert''.
4	** Also, for tax reasons, the film was co-produced by the French branch of Creator/UnitedArtists instead of the American one.
5	* CaliforniaDoubling:
6	** A lot of the film was shot in UsefulNotes/{{France}}, due to tax issues, while no scene takes place in France.
7	*** Weird inversion: Bond is flown to Drax's base in California (aerial plates shot in the US) and lands on a castle which Drax ordered to be brought from France, stone by stone. It was all shot in and around an actual French 17th century castle, Vaux-le-Vicomte.
8	*** The scene where Bond visits Drax Industries (in California, still) was shot at the Georges Pompidou/Beaubourg Center in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}.
9	*** Other Drax Industries scenes where shot at the biggest French studios available back then, in Billancourt, Epinay and Boulogne around Paris, including the centrifuge in which 007 is trapped. Ditto with the large Creator/KenAdam sets of Drax's base in UsefulNotes/TheAmazonRainforest.
10	** Some indoor scenes that are supposed to take place in UsefulNotes/{{Venice}} were also shot inside Vaux-le-Vicomte. Others were shot in French studios.
11	** The scene of the Brazil monastery where MI-6 has set up its field HQ was shot at the Monastery of San Nicolò al Lido in Venice.
12	** The plane and FreeFallFight sequence in the ActionPrologue is said to happen over Africa, but was shot in the skies of California.
13	* CastTheExpert: Toshiro Suga (Chang) was an aikido instructor and co-producer Michael G. Wilson was one of his pupils. He put his martial arts knowledge to good use in the role.
14	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
15	** ''Moonrocket'' (Finland)
16	** ''007 Against The Death Rocket'' (Brazil & Portugal)
17	** ''Moonraker: Operation Space'' (Italy, Croatia)
18	** ''Moonraker: Top Secret'' (Germany)
19	** ''Moonraker: Space Mission'' (Latin America)
20	** ''Moonraker: Moonrise'' (Hungary)
21	** ''007 Seizes The Space Station'' (China)
22	* CreatorBacklash:
23	** While certainly not the Bond film he criticized the most out of his whole run (that would be ''Film/AViewToAKill''), Creator/RogerMoore often made fun of himself and this movie for the absurdity of the plot. When he criticized ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', he said "and that's coming from me, the first Bond in space".
24	** Music/ShirleyBassey has mixed feelings towards the title song. In spite of its popularity, she's admitted that it never truly felt like it was one of her own due to being called to sing it at the last minute (and possibly due to all the other artists that executives offered the song to first) and as a result she seldom sings it publicly (much less than either ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' or ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'').
25	** In the extras of the DVD, producer Michael G. Wilson admits that the next movie, ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', was purposely made by [[Creator/AlbertRBroccoli Cubby Broccoli]] to be the exact opposite of this, for fear of the franchise becoming silly. The situation would repeat over twenty years later from ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' to ''Film/{{Casino Royale\|2006}}''.
26	* CreatorKiller: Screenwriter Christopher Wood only had a small handful of screen and television credits after working on this film. Somewhat unusually, however, it wasn't so much because the film was a critical dud as the fact that Wood found film screenwriting and all the ExecutiveMeddling that goes with it to be too stressful, and simply preferred working on his "[[PenName Timothy Lea]]" novels.
27	* CreatorsPest: Christopher Wood revealed that Jaws' love interest Dolly wasn't his idea and that he hated her. He also wasn't keen on Corinne, implying that having to rewrite the character was the reason for Corinne's confusing "I never learned to read" line.
28	-->I first wrote the role of actress Corinne Clery in ''Moonraker'' as an insolent Californian chick and then, for financial reasons, the film was shot in Paris with French crews and actors and Clery has got the role. If I had had the opportunity, I would have rewritten the role for a French actress. It's another scene that distresses me, especially the terrible line "I never learned to read". She's not mine.
29	* DeletedScene:
30	** The crew had shot a scene with Drax meeting his co-financiers in his jungle lair and they used the same chamber room below the space shuttle launch pad that Bond and Goodhead eventually escape from. This scene was shot but later cut out.
31	** Another scene involving Bond and Goodhead in a meditation room aboard Drax's space station, was shot but never used in the final film.
32	* TheDanza: Corinne Cléry as Corinne Dufour.
33	* ExecutiveMeddling: A relatively minor example but Sir Frederick Gray was added to the Venice scenes so that actor Geoffrey Keen could keep an eye on M's actor Creator/BernardLee by making sure he would not sneak away to any local bars. By this time Lee was a heavy drinker due to personal and financial issues in his life.
34	* FakeNationality:
35	** The Chinese Chang is played by Japanese actor and aikido master Toshirō Suga.
36	** The Brazilian Manuela is played by Aruban-Dutch actress Emily Bolton.
37	* FollowTheLeader: The film was was made during the SpaceOpera craze that was kicked off by ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]''.
38	* FountainOfExpies: Jaws tends to be one of the most referenced ''James Bond'' henchmen in media, alongside maybe Oddjob from ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''.
39	* InternationalCoproduction: The film was co-produced by Les Artistes Associés, the French branch of Creator/UnitedArtists, in addition to being filmed partly in France (for tax and budget reasons according to screenwriter Christopher Wood). As such, the actor playing the BigBad (Creator/MichaelLonsdale) and many of the extras and stuntmen (including Claude Carliez, Creator/GuyDelorme, Creator/PatrickFloersheim and most of the models who played Drax's "perfect race" women) were French.
40	* LoopingLines: French actress Corinne Clery, who plays Corinne, was dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl, in what was her last dubbing job for any film, as well as for any Bond film. She also dubbed the air hostess in the pre-titles sequence.
41	* MoneyDearBoy: Creator/LoisChiles agreed to be in the film because, "I needed the work, I needed the money and I needed the experience".
42	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: Creator/MichaelLonsdale recalled Drax's Dobermans:
43	-->The Japanese man came with some meat for the dogs. Throwing some on the carpet, but they wouldn't move. The man [who was] responsible for the dogs was quite upset. He was, "Go on, go on, allons y, allons y". They didn't like it: there was too much light and people.
44	* TheOtherMarty: Brazilian actress Adele Fátima was cast as Manuela, and she shot some minor scenes with Creator/RogerMoore around Sugar Loaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro, even going as far as appearing together with Moore [[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tka3vF2ir6U/X17tbtlt3YI/AAAAAAAAd_U/nJp1ny4YSqkpYDhvNQPFL3TWK20l08neACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Imagem%2B1.jpg on a magazine cover]]. She was later recast by Emily Bolton, with her own scenes deleted from the final cut.
45	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: Several Bond fans remember Dolly having braces, to coordinate with Jaws' metal teeth. Some even claim that DigitalDestruction erased the braces from more recent ''Moonraker'' prints, although Dolly's actress denies the character ever wearing any. One possible explanation for this misconception involves the oldest VHS having a bit of static appear over Dolly's lips, which might have resembled braces.
46	* ProductionNickname: Creator/RogerMoore nicknamed his gondola the "Bondola".
47	* RealLifeRelative: Creator/LoisMaxwell's daughter Melinda Maxwell played one of Drax's girls (she's the readhead of the two girls seen together at the tropical hideout, just before the scene with the snake, and kisses a fellow astronaut when the Moonraker shuttles go into space).
48	* RealitySubtext: Creator/RogerMoore's distaste at the quail hunting scene is quite genuine. In his autobiography, Moore expresses an extreme dislike for bloodsports and a reticence about guns.
49	* RecursiveAdaptation: The film is [[InNameOnly so unrelated]] to [[Literature/{{Moonraker}} the novel]] that it received a {{Novelization}}.
50	* RecycledScript: The film is very much a rehash of its immediate predecessor, ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', only with a climax that takes place [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]] instead of underwater. Several scenes and plot beats, including the villain's EvilPlan, are pretty much the same.
51	* ReferencedBy: In ''Film/{{Black Widow\|2021}}'', Natasha watches the movie on television. Both feature a physically-weak BigBad with an ImplacableMan henchman and [[spoiler:a fortress above the earth]].
52	* RefittedForSequel: The fight in the glass factory was originally meant for ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', where it was a fight in a museum.
53	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: At the time, UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s Space Shuttle programme was still 2 years away from launching. With the project's retirement in 2011, it has crossed into {{Zeerust}} territory.
54	* UncreditedRole: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais did minor uncredited work on the script.
55	* WagTheDirector: The producers wanted Jaws' love interest to be a woman even taller than he is, reportedly for no other reason than they thought if would be funny. Richard Kiel absolutely refused, and it was at his suggestion that the love interest be played by a much smaller woman.
56	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/JamesBond Enough for its own page]].
57	* YouLookFamiliar: Kim Fortune appeared as a lieutenant on HMS ''Ranger'' in ''The Spy Who Loved Me''. Here he appears as the co-pilot of the RAF carrier plane.
58
59	!!The novel
60	* WorkingTitle: The book was originally called ''The Moonraker'', until Creator/NoelCoward reminded him of a novel of the same name by F. Tennyson Jesse. He then considered ''The Moonraker Secret'', ''The Moonraker Plot'', ''The Inhuman Element'', ''Wide of the Mark'', ''The Infernal Machine'', ''Mondays are Hell'' and ''Out of the Clear Sky''. George Wren Howard of Jonathan Cape suggested ''Bond & the Moonraker'', ''The Moonraker Scare'' and ''The Moonraker Plan'', while his friend, the writer William Plomer, suggested ''Hell is Here''.
61	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Fleming drew on his knowledge of wartime operations carried out by T-Force, a secret British Army unit formed to continue the work of 30 Assault Unit, itself created by Fleming.

Context Trivia / Moonraker