If you’ve watched a few James Bond movies (OK, even one), you know that Ian Fleming’s super-spy can escape anyone’s clutches; now, a 007 fan film has done the same thing.
As noted on FCT back in June, MGM forced YouTube to take down the classic fan production, Moonraker ’78, even though the flick had been online for a year and had amassed more than 16,000 views.
Shot on Super 8 film back in 1978 by teenagers Stuart Basinger and future Pink Five auteur Trey Stokes, the fan film was an adaptation of the only Bond book at the time that hadn’t been adapted for the big screen. Roger Moore’s take on the tome would appear in theaters the following year and perhaps that knocked the wind out of the filmmakers, as the epic fan movie was never completed, left to sit in canisters on a shelf for the better part of 20 years. Basinger, meanwhile, grew up to become a news editor for Fox News, and was eventually inspired to transfer the old Super 8 footage to video and finish the project, using modern-day linear editing systems, computerized special effects and more.
Now the film is back online.
For over a decade, Basinger has run a Bond fan site, Dr. Shatterhand’s Botanical Garden, bringing fans the latest news and insights into the famed fictional spy. Now the website will have Basinger’s fan film available for download as well, as he explained:
I have recently uploaded Moonraker ’78 to my own website and put a disclaimer on the front saying it is for non-profit. We’ll see if the powers that may be will leave it alone or bring legal suit against me. They only asked YouTube to take it down last time and not me, so perhaps they will leave me alone since I am not a commercial entity.
Knowing that the fan film is a harmless tribute to MGM’s classic character, FCT is certainly rooting for the flick to stay online untouched. The 40-minute fan film is a hoot, and well worth watching, particularly for the chase scene through a clone factory. In fact, the flick is so impressive that it’s covered in my new fan film book, —some of the behind-the-scenes stories of this flick were hysterical, particularly the part where the fleet of police cars showed up while they were filming a gunfight.
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