James Bond in film of the funding for the Bond films, fell into financial difficulties following the box office failure of "Heaven's Gate" (1980), bringing uncertainty to the future of the funding. The situation was resolved in May 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired United Artists. Following "For Your Eyes Only", Roger Moore had expressed a desire to stop playing James Bond. His original contract had been for three films, a requirement fulfilled with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Subsequent films had been negotiated on a film-by-film basis. The producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next actor to play Bond, which would be for
James Bond and Moonraker James Bond and Moonraker James Bond and Moonraker is a novelization by Christopher Wood of the James Bond film "Moonraker". Its name was changed to avoid confusion with Fleming's novel. It was released in 1979. British Secret Service agent James Bond, codename 007, must prevent Sir Hugo Drax's plan to murder the entire human race and then restart humanity from outer space. The screenplay of "Moonraker" differed so much from Ian Fleming's novel that Eon Productions authorised the film's screenwriter, Christopher Wood to write a novelization based upon the film, as he had done for "The Spy Who Loved Me".