But while he had a big budget for the time (United Artists initially set the budget at $20 million, and it expanded to more than $30 million), an early draft was so sprawling, there probably was no way Broccoli was prepared to film it.

Broccoli wanted 1979’s Moonraker to be spectacular. Some collectors, though, pursue copies of scripts, including drafts that differ from the films themselves.

When each new Bond screen adventure comes out, most fans get caught up in the final movie. Throughout the past half-century, concepts, sequences, characters get thrashed out, elaborated or dropped. The same is true of James Bond screenplays.

The typical movie screenplay goes through multiple drafts before a final shooting script emerges.