The Making of Licence to Kill

by Sally Hibbin

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 1989

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

“For the first time in 15 years the James Bond production company has allowed an author to work directly alongside the film units during the making of a Bond movie.” Given free rein on the set, Sally Hibbin made the most of the situation and wrote a book that manages to capture the excitement, hard work, occasional boredom and fun that goes on during the planning and shooting of a film. With profiles and interviews of all the key players - actors and the production team - Hibbin follows the process from start to finish, explaining what’s going on and how one event ties into another, detailing the triumphs - andd occasional disasters - whilst never losing sight of the huge logistical exercise that making a big film in Mexico and Florida, with up to three units working, actually is. And whilst she does capture the fun - both in the interviews (Timothy Dalton and Robert Davi seem to have got on particularly well) and pictures - she doesn’t shy away from the awkward areas either. With a budget similar to that of “Moonraker” (made ten years earlier), the production was forced to leave the Bond spiritual home of Pinewood and set up camp at the Churubusco Studios in Mexico - a complex that production designer Peter Lamont had to kit out from scratch - and this does cause problems that make life just that little bit harder. The production team come across very well, well versed with each other since it was essentially the same group - from director John Glen through to writers Michael G. Wilson (also the producer, along with Cubby Broccoli) and Richard Maibaum, second unit director Arthur Wooster to cameraman Alec Mills, not to mention special effects supervisor John Richardson (who seemed to alternate his position with Derek Meddings) - that had worked together since “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981.

I’m a big fan of ‘making of’ books and I enjoyed the structure of this, plus it’s lavishly illustrated and nicely in-depth - though if I had one minor complaint, it’s that editor John Grover and the aforementioned Richardson only get about a page and half each covering their jobs, which seems light (though the latter does crop up several times throughout the piece).

I saw “Licence To Kill” (at a little cinema in Torquay) when it first came out in 1989 and I don’t remember being over-impressed - to me, then, it didn’t have the scope of the earlier films and, at the time, it was competing with bigger budgeted action films from the US (such as “Lethal Weapon”). My appreciation of the film - the acting, the direction and the general tone - has improved as time’s gone on and reading this, my admiration for the film-makers has increased too. A very thorough, well-written and entertaining book about a film that is still under-rated, I would highly recommend this.

[Sheena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chosen because of Timothy Dalton and because I had won a part in the next James Bond film.Due to contractual difficulties the film was posponed and I went to see the MGM Studios in Florida instead.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swear I used to own this - the cover is so familiar. Where did it go? Ah well. A well researched and written behind the scenes account of filming; obviously promotional, but fun and interesting too, with crew interviews and bios plus plenty of pictures.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book actually goes into great detail about the film and not just the depth of the actors and the director but actually down to the special effects supervisor, the costume designer and the second unit director. Its just a great source of how a film is put together and the roles that are intertwined together. It has some wonderful photos in the book. The only complaints I have about the book is I wish it spent more time on the editing it only received about a page and half section, I just would have love to heard more about the process. It provides great details on the making of the Bond films. If you are interested in film production or the Bond films I would highly recommend getting this book.