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 in film Bond film, "The Spy Who Loved Me". Guy Hamilton was initially scheduled to follow on from "The Man with the Golden Gun" with "The Spy Who Loved Me", but instead turned down Eon Productions during pre-production after being offered the opportunity to direct the 1978 film "Superman", although he was ultimately passed up for Richard Donner. Eon then turned to Lewis Gilbert, who had directed the earlier Bond film "You Only Live Twice". Broccoli commissioned a number of writers to work on the script, including Stirling Silliphant, John Landis, Ronald Hardy, Anthony Burgess and Derek Marlowe, but Richard Maibaum drew