James Bond in film process. Connery, however, was somewhat resigned to the project, lacking the enthusiasm he sported for "Thunderball". A press conference on his arrival had been tense, "soured by aggressive questioning of Connery's crumpled, jet-lagged appearance". Primary and secondary photography finished in December; the special effects filming for the space scenes were undertaken between January and March 1967, prior to the film's release on 12 June. The cinema posters for the film stated "Sean Connery IS James Bond", to distance the Eon-produced picture from the independent "Casino Royale", which had been released two months earlier. However, during the production, Connery announced that
James Bond in film Gavin to play the role of Bond, United Artists' chief David Picker was unhappy with this decision and instructed associate producer Stanley Sopel to broker a deal with Connery which saw the actor being paid $1.25 million ($ million in dollars) and 12.5% of the gross. Connery's salary took a significant part of the $7.2 million budget. The producers had originally intended to have "Diamonds Are Forever" re-create commercially successful aspects of "Goldfinger", so they hired director Guy Hamilton as a result. Richard Maibaum also returned to write the script; the first draft envisaged the return of Auric Goldfinger portrayer