The Battle for Bond
Encyclopedia
The Battle for Bond by Robert Sellers
, is a cinema history book of how the literary James Bond
metamorphosed to the cinema James Bond. The book details the collaboration among film producer Kevin McClory
, novelist Ian Fleming
, and screenwriter Jack Whittingham
to create the movie Thunderball and all that devolved from it.
After the project's collapse, without his collaborators' permission, Fleming based his Thunderball (1961) novel upon their joint work. In 1963, McClory and Whittingham sued him in a very public and acrimonious trial. This history features unpublished letters, private lawsuit documents, and cast-crew interviews. The author obtained five Thunderball screenplays, two by Fleming, three by Whittingham, and two treatments by Fleming that document the creation and development of this seminal James Bond project.
The Battle for Bond is a story of bitter recrimination, personal and business betrayals, million-dollar lawsuits, and death: Ian Fleming was accused of and sued for plagiarism; months into the lawsuit and trial, the fifty-six-year-old writer died of a heart attack. Kevin McClory won the film rights and chose a single, co-production deal with Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli: Thunderball (1965) that was released at Christmas.
McClory's court victory entitled him to remake Thunderball (1965) as Never Say Never Again (1983), again with Sean Connery as James Bond, the cinematic competition Broccoli had desperately tried to legally ban. With the success of the remake, McClory attempted to continue with his own James Bond film series, but was legally thwarted by Broccoli and MGM. In a later unsuccessful lawsuit, McClory went further and now claimed that he created the cinematic James Bond, and demanded a share of the three billion dollars earned by the official EON film series.
Apparently, in late February 2008, the Ian Fleming Will Trust threatened legal action against the publisher of "The Battle for Bond," per a posting on the publisher's website. It has been suggested that these threats have their basis, at least in part, on the usage of Fleming's private correspondence as a primary source. At the current time, the book's first edition has been pulled from publication, although copies remain in stock at online retailers. The implications of the threatened litigation remain undetermined. A second edition (clearly labeled on the front as "The Book They Tried To Ban!" across a red banner in the top right) has been released in the UK with the contested material removed.
Robert Sellers (author)
Robert Sellers is an English author, best known for his show-business biographies and works on popular culture including Cult TV and The Battle for Bond, an analysis of the Fleming plagiarism trial and its aftermath....
, is a cinema history book of how the literary James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
metamorphosed to the cinema James Bond. The book details the collaboration among film producer Kevin McClory
Kevin McClory
Kevin O'Donovan McClory was an Irish screenwriter, producer, and director. McClory was best known for the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again, which was the result of a long legal battle between McClory and Ian Fleming over the writing credits and later the film rights to...
, novelist Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
, and screenwriter Jack Whittingham
Jack Whittingham
Jack Whittingham was a British playwright, film critic, and screenwriter. He was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford....
to create the movie Thunderball and all that devolved from it.
After the project's collapse, without his collaborators' permission, Fleming based his Thunderball (1961) novel upon their joint work. In 1963, McClory and Whittingham sued him in a very public and acrimonious trial. This history features unpublished letters, private lawsuit documents, and cast-crew interviews. The author obtained five Thunderball screenplays, two by Fleming, three by Whittingham, and two treatments by Fleming that document the creation and development of this seminal James Bond project.
The Battle for Bond is a story of bitter recrimination, personal and business betrayals, million-dollar lawsuits, and death: Ian Fleming was accused of and sued for plagiarism; months into the lawsuit and trial, the fifty-six-year-old writer died of a heart attack. Kevin McClory won the film rights and chose a single, co-production deal with Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli: Thunderball (1965) that was released at Christmas.
McClory's court victory entitled him to remake Thunderball (1965) as Never Say Never Again (1983), again with Sean Connery as James Bond, the cinematic competition Broccoli had desperately tried to legally ban. With the success of the remake, McClory attempted to continue with his own James Bond film series, but was legally thwarted by Broccoli and MGM. In a later unsuccessful lawsuit, McClory went further and now claimed that he created the cinematic James Bond, and demanded a share of the three billion dollars earned by the official EON film series.
Apparently, in late February 2008, the Ian Fleming Will Trust threatened legal action against the publisher of "The Battle for Bond," per a posting on the publisher's website. It has been suggested that these threats have their basis, at least in part, on the usage of Fleming's private correspondence as a primary source. At the current time, the book's first edition has been pulled from publication, although copies remain in stock at online retailers. The implications of the threatened litigation remain undetermined. A second edition (clearly labeled on the front as "The Book They Tried To Ban!" across a red banner in the top right) has been released in the UK with the contested material removed.