21 Thunderball / Never Say Never Again
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This article is from the James Bond FAQ, by Michael Reed reed55@core.com with numerous contributions by others.
21 Thunderball / Never Say Never Again
This is the most rancorous debate of anything regarding James Bond. The
questions are aplenty here. Why is "Never Say Never Again" a retelling of
"Thunderball", and why did a different production team make it? Why do fans
often snub it as an "unofficial" film? Who is Kevin McClory and what role
did he play in shaping James Bond? And why are there so many continuity
errors in "Thunderball"? Let's begin with Kevin McClory.
Kevin McClory was a film producer who first made plans with Ian Fleming to
produce the first ever Bond feature film back in 1958. He wrote a script
with Fleming and screenwriter Jack Whittingham originally called "Longitude
78 West" in 1959. When the project fell through Fleming used the story as
the basis for his 1961 Bond novel "Thunderball", without crediting either
McClory or Whittingham.
McClory unsuccessfully attempted then to block Jonathan Cape's publication
of "Thunderball". He brought suit against Fleming in 1963 and the outcome
was that all future publications of the novel would state that "it is based
on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming."
Furthermore McClory acquired all movie rights to the story and its various
treatments, referred to as "the film scripts".
His 1965 collaboration with EON, co-producing "Thunderball", was an
appeasement of sorts to prevent a competitor of EON facing off against them
during the apex of Bondmania worldwide. In exchange McClory abandoned all
claims for another 10 years after the initial release of the film. When in
January 1976 the rights reverted back to him he wrote an original script
along with Len Deighton and Sean Connery himself, called "Warhead 8". When
legal battle was started again by EON he was finally forced to produce only
a direct remake of "Thunderball". The result was 1983's "Never Say Never
Again". The film was not EON's, and could not use the trademark gun-barrel
opening or theme music, not even the name "Q" who was never in the novel or
the original film scripts, making many fans consider it "unofficial".
McClory seemed to be the owner of SPECTRE and Blofeld, introduced in
"Thunderball", and EON has never used them by name since 1971's "Diamonds
Are Forever". The villain in "The Spy Who Loved Me" was originally SPECTRE,
changed when it appeared legal trouble might have ensued. The character in
the opening credits of "For Your Eyes Only" is Blofeld unnamed. Stay in this
Section and go to I "For Your Eyes Only".
McClory attempted to make his own Bond output for years after that. In late
1997 he aligned with Sony to attempt to produce an original film series
featuring James Bond. MGM responded with legal action to prevent this. In
March 1999, the Sony/McClory camp was soundly thumped in court and Sony gave
up any claim to owning James Bond. McClory, publicly claiming "abandonment",
began peddling the rights he had, real or imagined, to any interested party.
In the end MGM proved to hold a surprising edge, namely due to an oversight
on McClory's behalf. The copyright to "Thunderball" was claimed by MGM when
McClory had not renewed it properly and in effect they retain at least the
legal position to withstand any charge he may bring.
"Thunderball" features more visible continuity errors than usual. From the
ever-changing color scuba masks in the end battle to Leiter changing from
shorts to pants during a helicopter ride, the editing seems sloppy. The
problems stemmed from a meltdown in postproduction. Terence Young had
directed the first two films, and then sat out the third before returning to
direct "Thunderball". The rigorous schedule took its toll, as well as
artistic differences with EON. Young walked out during editing leaving
editor Peter Hunt having to make the most of what was already shot without
the possibility of reshooting.
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