You Only Live Twice (film) declined the offer to direct, but accepted after producer Albert R. Broccoli called him saying: "You can't give up this job. It's the largest audience in the world." Peter R. Hunt, who edited the first five Bond films, believed that Gilbert had been contracted by the producers for other work but they found they had to use him. Gilbert, producers Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, production designer Ken Adam and director of photography Freddie Young then went to Japan, spending three weeks searching for locations. SPECTRE's shore fortress headquarters was changed to an extinct volcano after the team learned that the
You Only Live Twice (film) reaches the American craft. The Americans stand down their forces. Blofeld, who had earlier killed Osato to demonstrate the price of failure to Bond, activates the base's self-destruct system, a bomb that triggers a volcanic eruption and escapes. Bond, Kissy, Tanaka, and the surviving ninjas leave before the eruption destroys the base, and are picked up by the Japanese Maritime Forces and the British Secret Service. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was the intended next film, but the producers decided to adapt "You Only Live Twice" instead because "OHMSS" would require searching for high and snowy locations. Lewis Gilbert originally