4. Never Say Never Again (1983)
Original: Thunderball (1965) The idea of official Bond films is a tenuous one. Usually it refers to the list of Bond films produced by Eon Productions who are still producing them today, Skyfall being next in line. However there are a few Bond anomalies like the idea that Bob Holness was the first Bond as he played him on radio, or that the 1967 version of Casino Royale starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and Woody Allen (not a bad cast!) should be counted as a Bond film, despite not being an Eon production. Surely the bane of pub quizzers and quiz masters alike, well Never Say Never Again is another. How many times did Sean Connery officially play Bond? Surely a nightmare of a question. The source of each film is Ian Flemings 1961s novel Thunderball, so the idea of Never Say Never Again being a remake isnt in question, the source is the same. Whether its official of not is a different matter. Never Say Never Again is so titled because after surrendering Bond duties to Roger Moore after 1971s Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery said he would never again play the infamous 00 agent. For Never Say Never Again a then 52-year-old Connery agreed to don the tux one more time. The film was directed by Irvin The Empire Strikes Back Kershner and co-written by one Kevin McClory, the same Kevin McClory who served as producer on the original 1965 Thunderball. In the late 50s Fleming wanted to make a film version of Bond. Flemings friend Ivar Bryce introduced him to filmmaker Kevin McClory who, amongst other, would help Fleming write a Bond screenplay. Over a number of years, Fleming took the screenplay co-written by McClory, retitled it and wrote the novel that would eventually become Thunderball and this is when things got a little sticky.
Upon seeing an advance of the proposed novel, McClory and third co-writer Jack Whittingham sought an injunction to stop the book being published. Although this failed, in 1963 McClory sought further advice and through a prolonged legal battle, during which Fleming was significantly ill, eventually settled out of court for literary and film rights to the screenplay with Fleming maintaining rights to the novel. Therefore, although retaining the rights to Ian Flemings novels, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzmans Eon Productions did not have the rights to the screenplay, allowing McClory to independently produce the 1983 version, Never Say Never Again. Before his death in 2006 McClory attempted a further Thunderball adaptation, Warhead 2000 AD, starring Timothy Dalton, though plans were eventually scrapped. MGM now maintains distribution rights and with McClory now sadly passed it would appear plainer sailing for Eon Productions and their Bond monopoly.