Maibaum stems from another generation entirely where not every statement was necessarily streamlined in corporation speech. Examples like Horowitz stick out today because we are used to everybody being dandy and super happy with the finished product, the manager’s decision or the other team players.
And back in Maibaum’s day not every interview was immediately available to the entire public (or his masters at Eon). I expect they knew well enough how he felt about his work getting used or discarded as needed. But a scriptwriter - one of several - complaining in some fanzine or industry outlet didn’t make any waves back then; or not nearly as much as their star voicing his anger in the headlines made. Eon could live with Maibaum saying naughty things about them. They even let Jesper Christensen return much later, when being a ‘team player’ was really conditio sine qua non.
Fleming actually seemed to be comparatively supportive of Eon, probably also because they finally managed to get Bond running on the big screen. There’s no saying how he might have reacted to the bigger distortions of his work; the films he lived to see were almost faithful to the word by modern standards (and the Jimmy Bond tv play).
Fact is, Fleming had already made numerous attempts at turning Bond - or ‘Commander Jamaica’ - into some screen project, the last one with disastrous consequences that might nearly have killed the Eon deal. He was probably glad to see things go as they did with the ‘hairy bodybuilder’ (or some such derogatory verdict he made about Connery before DR NO) and realised what most authors do when their work is being adapted: hope for the best and keep mum about the worst.
As I’ve said before, I’m thankful for Richard Maibaum and I can completely understand his criticisms. As a bit of a writer myself, it can hurt when someone doesn’t know what their doing, or rejects your ideas, or your ideas get misinterpreted. I was in a writer’s class a few weeks ago, and almost walked out when the teacher openly criticized how MY story was pitched. It hurts, at the same time, writers need to realize that their work isn’t going to be 100% done their way. That’s where Richard Maibaum never learned. Again, I TOTALLY understand his viewpoints (namely about the many Felix Leiter’s). But things are not always going to go your way. That’s life, realistically and creatively.
Sure, but I applaud a creative who has the guts to speak his mind with no fear of ruffling feathers.
We‘re in this worldwide mess because people rather adopt PR speech and company lines, suggesting the bosses are always wonderful, when it would be high time to say the truth.
Judging by what I’ve read in Clement Feutry’s (free) book “Scripting 007,” Maibaum was as likely as any other writer to come up with ridiculous and ill-advised ideas. Of course, they were usually kicked to the curb as the “final” scripts came together – often by Maibaum himself – but still, it’s not like he was incapable of bad choices.
As far as his criticisms of others, they seem pretty standard for creative types. As a kid I remember being excited to find a magazine called The Comics Journal which featured interviews with comic book artists, writers and editors. That is I was excited until it turned out to be merely a forum to air grievances and indulge grudges, so the answer to Young Me’s question “What’s it like to work in comics” turned out to be “Awful. The writers hate the artists, and each other. The artists hate the writers, and each other. The editors hate both groups, and everyone hates the editors.” Which of course isn’t true either, but when you consider (1) it was an age before everyone bent over backwards to project a sense of esprit de corps and corporate line-toeing, (2) every collaborative process is eventually going to involve getting your opinions overruled or your work “tampered with” and (3) gripes are always going to be more attractive than kumbayas to magazine editors, it was inevitable that TCJ would never run out of negative vibes to dine on.
Maibaum is entitled to his opinions and it’s not like millions of other people haven’t seen a Bond film and claimed “I could’ve done better.” The difference is he occasionally proved it.