James Bond in film not to produce any other films based on the "Thunderball" story for a period of ten years following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965. After the interruption of McClory as producer, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman returned to produce once again. The first four Bond films had been popular in Japan, and Eon decided to take advantage of the market by producing "You Only Live Twice". The film included progressive elements of Japanese culture as part of the background. Lewis Gilbert was appointed director and Ken Adam returned as production designer; Adam built a volcano hideaway set for
You Only Live Twice (novel) way through the middle-brow masses, a relaxation to the great, a stimulus to the humble, the only common denominator between Kennedy and Oswald". The critic for "The Times" was largely unimpressed with "You Only Live Twice", complaining that "as a moderate to middling travelogue what follows will just about do ... the plot with its concomitant sadism does not really get going until more than half way through". In contrast to the previous novels, "The Times" continued, "though Mr. Fleming's macabre imagination is as interesting as ever, some of the old snap seems to have gone". Dealing with the cliffhanger