(27 October 2010) The Aston Martin DB5 used in this movie (and Goldfinger) was sold - fully "loaded" - to American classic car collector, Harry Yeaggy, for a reported $4.6 million by London's RM Auctions. The car had only one previous private owner, an American radio station owner named Jerry Lee, who purchased the car directly from the Aston Martin factory in 1969 for $12,000. Lee had kept the car at his Pennsylvania home for over forty years.
Reginald Beckwith, who plays the minor part of Kenniston, died before the movie's release.
Adolfo Celi's voice was dubbed by Robert Rietty (who previously dubbed the voice of John Strangways in Dr. No and later a man resembling Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in For Your Eyes Only). The reason for this was because Celi's thick Sicilian accent made his voice difficult to follow even when speaking English.
Raquel Welch, Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Yvonne Monlaur, Mary Menzies, Gloria Paul and Maria Grazia Buccella were all contenders for the role of Domino. Raquel Welch dropped out to do Fantastic Voyage. Faye Dunaway would later be a contender to play Octopussy.
Martine Beswick had played one of the gypsy girls in From Russia with Love, and Paula Caplan in this movie. She is well-tanned in the film, but before shooting she was pale white due to years of stage work in England. So before filming in Nassau she was required to spend some two weeks sunning herself to get the proper tan of a native girl.
Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham collaborated in 1959 on an original story and screenplay for what would have been the very first 007 film, entitled "James Bond, Secret Agent". McClory reportedly wanted Richard Burton to play James Bond. But reportedly, after an unrelated film by Kevin McClory bombed, Ian Fleming changed his mind and backed out of the partnership with McClory.Fleming had previously cannibalized plots prepared for two other abandoned Bond spin-off projects, a newspaper comic strip and a television series, for 007 novels, and similarly turned this one into his novel "Thunderball". However, in this case his right to do so was not so clear. When Harry Saltzman bought the film rights to the Bond novels from Fleming and went into partnership with Albert R. Broccoli, McClory initiated legal action, resulting in Dr. No rather than Thunderball becoming the first Bond film. Although this production is a fairly faithful adaptation of the published novel, McClory's suit resulted in only the earlier screenplay being credited as source material. McClory's producer cred
Peter R. Hunt claims that the scene with a dog urinating in the shot during the Junkanoo (at 87:14) was at first left on the cutting room floor, feeling that the footage wasn't that great. However the producers, who noticed the take as they checked the dailies, enjoyed the shot so much that they demanded it remain in the film. Also, in the parade behind the dog, a group who arrived for filming as part of the parade dressed up wearing "007" on their hats. Filmmakers attempted to edit around the group, but the dog's impromptu nature call kept the "007" group in the film.
Claudine Auger's heavily accented English was deemed too "French-thick" by the filmmakers after shooting initial scenes of her. Hence, Nikki Van der Zyl, who dubbed Ursula Andress' voice in Dr. No, was brought back to dub Auger's lines. For similar reasons, Adolfo Celi (Largo) had his lines dubbed over by Robert Rietty to hide his thick and distinctive Sicilian accent.
Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton was originally offered the directing job by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli. However, due to fatigue at the time, he felt he could not add anything more, and turned it down.
Maurice Binder returned to the series to design the main title sequence for this movie after being absent from the previous two Bond movies, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. He had designed the opening titles for Dr. No and would continue on every Bond movie after this one until his last on Licence to Kill.
A character called Fatima Blush was originally created by Ian Fleming as a double agent and existed in early treatments / outlines of this movie. She does not appear in neither the book nor movie Thunderball but does in its remake, Never Say Never Again.
A GI Joe doll was popular in the toy market at the time of Thunderball's production so when the film was released, the first ever James Bond action figure was manufactured as part of the film's merchandising. The film's massive collectible merchandising continued the boom which had started with Goldfinger.
A promotional film, The Incredible World of James Bond was aired on American television on 26 November 1965, one month before the release of the movie. Narrated by Alexander Scourby, the 48 minute documentary aired as a one hour special. It included footage of the filming at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire and of the fight aboard the Disco Volante at Pinewood Studios; media coverage of Martine Beswick, Luciana Paluzzi and Claudine Auger; and archive footage of Ian Fleming at 'Goldeneye', Jamaica. It is available on the Thunderball DVD Ultimate Edition.
A Special 25th Anniversary Screening of the film was held at the National Film Theatre in London in 1990 and was attended by director Terence Young and Molly Peters amongst other people associated with the production and EON's James Bond movies. It was organized by the James Bond Fan Club. A Special 40th Anniversary screening of the movie was held on 20 November 2005.
A special charity premiere was held on the 10th of February 1966 in Ireland at the Savoy Theatre in Dublin. Production personnel attending included Albert R. Broccoli, Kevin McClory, Luciana Paluzzi and Molly Peters. Frogmen wearing harpoons and underwater wet-suits adorned the screening whilst an after party was held at the Gresham Hotel.
A timely reference to the recent British Train Robbery was inserted into the script at the last minute. This can be heard during the SPECTRE meeting after the opening credits. In the film's story, Agent No. #5 reported that SPECTRE was paid £250,000 consultancy fee for the British Train Robbery.
According to "Bond-Gadget-Designer" Ken Adam, the jet pack that Bond uses to escape his enemies was no nice special effect but a real jet pack provided by the US Air Force. Initially Sean Connery was to fly the jet pack without a helmet (and some publicity photos of him with the jet pack were made with him without a helmet). This was because he would have looked more debonair. It was later decided he wear a helmet in the scene. This was for risk / safety reasons as the pilot refused not to wear a crash helmet and the scenes had to match.
According to Behind the Scenes with 'Thunderball', in the scene were Bond climbs out of the shark tank right as a shark makes a run at him, the shark in question is dead, and pulled by a wire.
According to the film's CD Soundtrack sleeve notes, the title song debuted in the US Charts on 11 December 1965 and peaked at the No. #25 spot. In the UK Charts, it entered on 13 January 1966 where it peaked at No. #35.
As overseen by John Stears, the special effects explosion of the Disco Volante was so powerful it shattered and blew out windows about twenty to thirty miles away in Nassau's Bay Street where the film's Junkanoo Mardi-Gras sequence was filmed. Reportedly, he had not known how potent and strong a mix the experimental rocket fuel was in order to create the explosion.