The untold story

Sean Connery, the first Bond, eventually tired of his global celebrity and had a nagging sense that he was being shortchanged. So after the fifth Bond movie You Only Live Twice, the disenchanted star stepped down

The real story behind the James Bond film franchise is almost as dramatic as the 007 fantasies themselves, full of twists and turns, personality clashes, heroes, villains, beautiful women and narrow escapes, according to a new documentary.

Everything Or Nothing: The Untold Story Of 007 was released in theaters on Friday, branded Global James Bond Day to mark 50 years since the world premiere of Dr. No, which introduced author Ian Fleming's suave, sophisticated secret agent to the masses. An anniversary Blu-ray box set, a swanky charity auction at Christie's and the new "007" fragrance for men are some of the ways in which Bond is being celebrated, underlining the lasting appeal of a character who has been constantly reinvented.

A measure of the fictional spy's popularity in Britain came during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, when Bond actor Daniel Craig and Queen Elizabeth shared a short, comic and hugely popular scene filmed in Buckingham Palace. Craig's first two outings on her majesty's secret service both earned around $600 million at the box-office and Skyfall, the 23rd official Bond film, hits theatres in a few weeks.

But the new documentary, directed by Stevan Riley and featuring interviews with five of the six official Bond actors, underlines how the series was not always so secure.

"We've been through two bankruptcies of the studio, and we've been through various attacks by competing series so we've had our ups and downs," said long-time Bond producer Michael G. Wilson of the franchise's more serious setbacks.

"And of course we've also painted ourselves into a corner a number of times when you have to jump out of it," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

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