The
second film, Never Say Never Again
was as a result of a legal dispute between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming over
the genesis of Thunderball, the book.
Although Never Say Never Again was not released
until 1983, the film’s history begins 24 years earlier, when Kevin McClory and
scriptwriter Jack Whittingham collaborated with Ian Fleming on a series of
original treatments and scripts in 1959-60. These scripts eventually evolved
into the basis for Thunderball, which
was intended for release in 1960 as the first 007 film. Delays occurred and in
1961 Fleming published Thunderball as
a novel (allegedly plagiarizing Whittingham’s script on over 200 pages with no
acknowledgments), and signed a movie deal with Cubby Broccoli and Harry
Saltzman.
McClory
and Whittingham began taking legal action against Fleming for his alleged plagiarism;
but wanting to move forward with their deal, Broccoli and Saltzman dropped Thunderball and moved forward with Dr. No (with Richard Maibaum writing). Dr. No was released in 1962 to great
acclaim, and Broccoli and Saltzman (‘Eon Productions’) moved forward with
their next 007 film, From Russia With
Love.
In 1963,
McClory and Fleming settled out of court. McClory was given the film rights
to Thunderball (including Blofeld
and SPECTRE); but lacking financial support, he eventually turned to Eon for
backing, and Thunderball was released
in theatres in 1965. According to the agreement between McClory and Eon, Eon
was permitted to continue using Blofeld and SPECTRE after Thunderball for the next 10 years.
[That explains why SPECTRE seemed to disappear…]
|
McClory died
in 2006, but the legal wrangling had not been successfully settled.
Now, almost
exactly 50 years since the out-of-court settlement that saw Ian Fleming end
lengthy litigation wit McClory over the copyright
and film rights to Thunderball,
Danjaq and MGM announced on 15 November they have acquired rights and interests
owned by the McClory estate, bringing all remaining Bond intellectual property
under one roof.
It looks as though not only will James Bond return,
but perhaps SPECTRE and even some incarnation of Blofeld…
Information
gleaned from a fascinating site, http://www.mi6-hq.com/mi6.php3
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