Ian Fleming originally wrote the story 'For Your Eyes Only' as an episode for a cancelled James Bond television series at CBS in 1958. Eon intended to adapt it after The Spy Who Loved Me, but switched to Moonraker after the success of Star Wars in 1977.
After Moonraker's high budget and United Artists' financial flop with Heaven's Gate, combined with the early 1980s recession, For Your Eyes Only was made on a lower budget, prompting a grittier, more grounded style compared to the science-fiction tone of its predecessor.
None of the four previous series directors (Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, Peter Hunt) could be hired due to budget constraints, so editor and second-unit director John Glen was promoted to director for his feature debut.
With Roger Moore's involvement uncertain due to his age, actors such as Lewis Collins, Ian Ogilvy, Michael Billington and Michael Jayston were considered to replace him, while Timothy Dalton withdrew himself from contention because he disliked the series' direction at the time.
Bernard Lee died of cancer in January 1981 after filming had begun but before shooting his scenes as M; out of respect, Broccoli refused to recast the role, so the script was rewritten to have M on leave, with Bill Tanner and the Minister of Defence briefing Bond instead.
Julian Glover, who plays villain Kristatos, had previously been considered to play Bond himself but was deemed too young at first and too old by the time of this film.
Ornella Muti turned down the lead female role, later given to Carole Bouquet, because her preferred costume designer Wayne Finkelman was not hired for the production.
Cassandra Harris, who played Countess Lisl, was married at the time to Pierce Brosnan, who would later become James Bond himself; the couple lunched with producer Albert R. Broccoli during filming.
During filming at the Meteora monasteries, the Eastern Orthodox monks, unhappy about the production despite a bishop having been paid for permission, protested by hanging washing from windows, covering buildings with bunting, and placing oil drums to block helicopter landings.
On the final day of filming the bobsleigh chase sequence in Cortina d'Ampezzo in February 1981, 23-year-old stuntman Paolo Rigon was killed when he became trapped under the bobsleigh, an incident that led to the track being shortened for future competitions.
Since it was not snowing in Cortina d'Ampezzo during filming, the production paid for trucks to bring snow from nearby mountains and dump it in the city's streets.
Roger Moore, who had a great fear of heights, resorted to moderate drinking to calm his nerves before filming the cliff-climbing sequence in Greece.
Roger Moore was reluctant to film the scene of Bond kicking Locque's car off a cliff, feeling it wasn't 'Roger Moore Bond-like,' and had to be persuaded by Michael G. Wilson and the filmmakers to be more ruthless.
The pre-title sequence's helicopter flying into a warehouse was achieved using forced perspective, with a smaller model helicopter flown closer to the camera by stunt pilot Marc Wolff to create the illusion, since flying a real helicopter through the warehouse was too dangerous.
Many of the underwater close-up scenes between Bond and Melina were actually filmed dry on a soundstage, using lighting effects, slow-motion photography, wind, and bubbles added in post-production to simulate being underwater, partly because Carole Bouquet had a health condition preventing underwater stunt work.
Debbie Harry was originally hired to sing the title song but quit when producers refused to let her band Blondie write and perform an original song; Blondie's rejected composition, also titled 'For Your Eyes Only,' later appeared on their 1982 album The Hunter.
Sheena Easton became the only title song artist to appear on screen during a Bond film's opening credits, after title designer Maurice Binder decided to feature her due to her appearance.
The unnamed bald villain with a white cat in the pre-title sequence, resembling Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was deliberately left unidentified due to a legal dispute with Kevin McClory over the rights to the character stemming from Thunderball.
Milos Columbo's name was inspired by Ferrari engine designer Gioacchino Colombo, and actor Chaim Topol suggested pistachios as the character's trademark, which are later used by his men to signal targets during the warehouse assault scene.
The film's promotional poster, showing a woman from behind holding a crossbow with an optical illusion making her appear partially nude (achieved by having the model wear bikini bottoms backwards), caused controversy in the US, leading some newspapers to edit or paint over the image before publication.
The film's London premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square set an all-time opening-day box office record for any film at any UK cinema at the time.
