Trivia / Fathom (1967)

• Creator Backlash: Raquel Welch apparently didn't think much of the movie, saying "I played a blown up Barbie doll".
• Executive Meddling: Writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. said that during location shooting in Spain, "there were a lot of things in the script [The Franco Regime] didn't like, so a lot of the script was thrown away on the first days of shooting."
• Follow the Leader: The film was made to cash in on the success of Modesty Blaise.
  Lorenzo Semple Jr.: Fox bought a novel called Fathom, about a big, tall girl. She was called Fathom because she was six feet tall. They thought that would be their Modesty Blaise.
• Hostility on the Set: Writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. says that Raquel Welch and director Leslie H. Martinson had a fight on the first day of filming and never spoke throughout the rest of the shoot. Second unit director Peter Medak, however, later spoke positively of working with Welch:
  Medak: She was at that time quite inexperienced, exactly like one of those American drum majorettes. But she tried very hard and went to see the rushes each day, gradually improving. "Who's this dumb broad?" people used to say. But I said: "You wait. I'll bet she made it." I liked her very much because she was such a genuine person. And she had a beautiful body, which always helps.
• Stillborn Franchise: There were apparently plans to make a film series out of the Fathom character, but the idea was abandoned following the film's lukewarm reception, not helped by Modesty Blaise, the film it was inspired from, being a flop.
  Lorenzo Sample Jr.: The movie Modesty Blaise came out and it was a spectacular flop. So, that cooled off the whole project.