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
David Niven a French comedy with Bourvil and Jean Paul Belmondo was the most popular film at the French box office in 1969 but was not widely seen in English speaking countries. He did a war drama "Before Winter Comes" (1969) then returned to comedy in "The Statue" (1971). Niven was in demand throughout the last decade of his life: "King, Queen, Knave" (1972); "Vampira" (1974); "Paper Tiger" (1975); "No Deposit, No Return" (1976), a Disney comedy; "Murder by Death" (1976), one of several stars in a popular comedy; "Candleshoe" (1977), again for Disney; "Death on the Nile" (1978), one of many