The 9th Circuit upheld the dismissal in 2001. The suit was dismissed in 2000 on the grounds that he waited to long to file his claim. But he wanted more than just the “Thunderball” adaptations and sought partial ownership over Bond himself in a federal suit filed in Los Angeles. For financial as much as legal reasons, McClory back off and put his project in the “Pending” folder.Ī ruling in 1983 in London courts held that McClory was allowed to make Bond films and he proceeded to produce “Never Say Never Again”. McClory’s argument was that he alone had the rights to SPECTRE and Broccoli and company could not use it.īroccoli stated that McClory had no right to make a movie based on the original drafts as he didn’t have Ian Fleming’s permission. MGM filed suit against McClory to stop him from making a rival Bond film. In 1973, McClory wanted to get back in the Bond business and announced that he would produce James Bond of the Secret Service. However McClory also maintained that he created Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the terror organization SPECTRE. McClory then re-made the film in 1983, reprising Sean Connery as Bond as “Never Say Never Again”. McClory won the film rights and entering a co- production deal with Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R “Cubby” Broccoli, who produced “Thunderball” in 1965.

McClory and Whittingham sued Fleming citing a breach of copyrights, breach of confidence, conversion, of contract, false representation of authorship and slander of title. 001 – The Thunderball Debacleĭirector, writer and producer Kevin McClory is the man behind the longest-standing Bond litigation and it stemmed from “Thunderball”, whose plot arose following a collaboration between Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham.

So here are the five major legal disputes that have marked Bond’s trip through the legal universe. The litigation casebook of James Bond goes all the way back to the spy master Creator himself – Ian Fleming – and to a dispute that lead too battles that were in some respects as spectacular as anything Fleming created with his fictional and ageless hero and involving SPECTRE and Blofeld. The world of James Bond may be full of glamour, beautiful women, magnificent cars and spectacular locations but it has also been filled with acrimony and litigation – with one ongoing legal feud lasting half a century, lead by a man who claimed (and probably did) create SPECTRE and the Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, as portrayed in the latest Bond outing, “Specter”.

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