Moonraker script

Guys, is this the real thing, or a copy?
Maybe I would buy it if it’s real.

The cover, or what passes for it, it seems to come straight from under a copier machine.

Difficult to say. All in all, it looks old enough. That the cover (and everything else) looks like a photocopy is only normal, because back in the day (before everyone had a printer at home or at the office, and before cheap print-on-demand shops), photocopies were the easiest and cheapest way to produce a number of copies.

But it’s near impossible to say whether this is an “original” (first generation) copy that was given out by Eon, or if this is just the 3rd photocopy of the 3rd photocopy. Even first generation copies were bad at that time, so the photocopy quality can’t be taken as a criterium. And also, we don’t know what generation the copies were that were given out by Eon.

The antiquarian’s bill says nothing. It says that an (alleged) Moonraker script was sold in 1981. Heaven knows whether it was this one or not. But if it was, all the bill says that this is old
At the end of the day, the only way to find out if this is genuine or not is to compare it to confirmed originals, and even that is not 100% safe.

4 Likes

I assumed that an original script had some kind of cover, but that’s not the case?
By the way, there is also a script from TSWLM on Ebay, which is even more expensive, it does look more real, but that doesn’t say much.

Depends on your definition of “real”. :wink:

The Moonraker one looks a lot like a working script, a reading copy, a simple file with no need for something like an elaborate cover. The kind of stuff they forget in trains or cafés. For Bond scholars, this is the stuff to go after. If it’s the real deal, it’s the version of the film as per May 1978, three months before shooting started, and it may contain or omit interesting stuff. Alternate scenes, scenes the were cut later (the “Love Chamber” for example), maybe even entirely different parts. But I have no idea if this is a known version of the script or if this has been lurking in the dark for ages. :man_shrugging:

The TSWLM one seems to be a script that was written after the film was finished as it contains technical details of the film and certainly was created for archival purposes. It’s the script as seen in the final movie. I guess that’s what the term “Export Film Script” is supposed to mean. When you google that, all you get is a few offers for this TSWLM script and a LALD one, also for $2800. :man_shrugging:

2 Likes

I have a MR draft dated April '78 - the “magnum opus” as I call it that includes the Acrostar jets.

As Stromberg stated, this looks a bit hyped.

3 Likes

One other aspect every prospective buyer ought to be aware of: These photocopies are not really good storage media. Depending on which quality of paper was used and how they were stored for 50 years - or will be stored in the future - they can tend to fade out fairly rapidly. If one doesn’t have the means to properly keep this stuff in air conditioned and protected containers one may end up with a pile of barely readable yellowing photocopy paper.

Tricky.

1 Like

At a price of 350 Euros I would prefer to buy groceries for the next month.

3 Likes

He bought it for 20 if you look at the bill from 1981… so…pfff
I don’t know… it ís my favorite Bond movie…but, it’s a lot of money…
I got an offer for almost 60 euro less, but with import chargers and p&p costs it’s around the same price as before. :roll_eyes:

2 Likes

I hate myself, I am a fool! I’m completely deranged, because…fill in the blank! :crazy_face:

3 Likes

We expect your review.

2 Likes

My review of my failing savings management?

On the other hand: it’s still half the price of the Taschen Dr. No book.

4 Likes

I"ll be interested.

I got it, received it today.
It looks real, some pages even have coffee stains, I don’t think you would deliberately make that on a newer copy.
I’m reading it right now.
I’m now at the “Look after Mr. Bond, see that some harm comes to him” segment.
Already a few remarkable things:

In the opening fragment it is suggested that in the cockpit next to the pilot, very large shoulders of a certain person are visible in the other cockpit seat, as an explanation to the question, which many asked, how Jaws could be on board the plane unseen.

After Bond’s free fall, there is also a fragment from within the circus where a kind of trapeze act is performed, which is of course subsequently disrupted by Jaws falling through the circus tent canvas and the entire tent ends up in chaos.
Then Jaws looks up through the broken tent canvas and sees Bond in the distance in the air with a grin on his face disappearing from view with his parachute.

Furthermore, Corinne Dufour is called Sylvie Dufour here, but the strange thing is that later in the script, in a kind of repetition of earlier pages, she is once called Trudi. Pages 26 to 29 are included twice and vary somewhat. Then it just continues and her name is Sylvie Dufour again.

5 Likes

Thank you! More, please! :wink:

1 Like

I took a closer look at those different pages, but apart from the different name they seem identical, so why are they included twice…? It seems that the Drax helicopter pilot was originally American, but because the English-French production required French actors, that apparently changed.
Wasn’t the name in the Wood novelization Judy Parker instead of Sylvie Dufour?
Perhaps because of actress Corrine Clery it eventually became Corrine Dufour.

For the rest, the film follows the script fairly closely, with minor changes, which were probably changed at the last minute during filming on location.

For example, Bond does not say “Play it again, San/m!”, but “I never new he had an ear for music!”
Just like in the novelisation, it is Bond who is chased by Chang to the clock tower, while in the film Chang emerges from the completely destroyed glass-blowing art hall, with Bond following behind him.

There is also the scene where Bond is chased by Manuela in a car and he jumps onto a tram unseen, which is also in Wood’s book, but not in the final film.

Furthermore, Bond does not climb over a fence but opens a door lock to get into Drax’s warehouse during the carnival in Rio.

I have now come to the scene where Jaws goes straight through the control building with the cable car and all.

I’ll keep you informed.

4 Likes

That is one funny quip.

1 Like

Oef… for everyone who thinks Jaws and Dolly is not the best idea, their meeting could have been worse!

The script says:

Dolly: “My name’s Dolly!”

Jaws: “Ga-ga, Gaga!”
A subtitle reads: “Hello, Dolly!”
:roll_eyes:

2 Likes

And no Purvis and Wade in sight.

3 Likes

Finally had time to finish it this weekend.
The script is more or less the same as the final film. So no acro stars, or space walking Bond, but there are still a few notable differences:

From the moment Bond arrives in Venice and walks to Venini Glassworks, he is being watched by someone with binoculars, located in a tower, and this happens again later when Bond walks with Holly.

Bond does not land in the jungle with the hang glider, as in the film, but in the swirling water and is just able to grab hold of a rock wall and climb up, where he sees the lady he met earlier at Venini Glassworks in Venice, now standing on a kind of ledge.

Sometimes the order of events is also different:

In the script, Bond pulls the lever so that gravity disappears in the space station, only then - when Jaws has pulled the lever again and gravity is present again - does Drax want to put Bond and Holly in the air lock.
Bond then makes Jaws realize that he and Dolly will likely be the next to be killed, because they don’t measure up to Drax’s perfect human being.
When Jaws then takes out the two guards, it is Bond who knocks Drax down and puts him in the air lock himself.
Surprisingly, it is Jaws who pulls the lever and lets Drax be sucked into space.

When Jaws and Dolly are in the rotating command satellite, Jaws makes the peace sign with his hand to Bond and Holly. Then he takes a bottle of champagne from somewhere, removes the cork with his teeth and then mumbles something and you get another subtitle on the screen, which reads:
" Shaken, but not stirred"

5 Likes

Oh! Before I forget, in the script, in Gogol’s “I was already awake” scene, at the end the lady sitting in his bed turns out to be Anya Amasova.

2 Likes