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''The Battle for Bond'' (2007), by
Robert Sellers
Robert Sellers (born 3 February 1965 in Leeds) is an English writer and author, 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 ...
, is a cinema history book of how the literary character
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
metamorphosed to the cinema James Bond. The book details the collaboration among film producer
Kevin McClory
Kevin O'Donovan McClory (8 June 1924 – 20 November 2006) was an Irish screenwriter, film producer, and film director. McClory was best known for producing the James Bond film '' Thunderball'' and for his legal battles with the character's cre ...
, novelist
Ian Fleming, screenwriter
Jack Whittingham and others to create the film ''
Thunderball''.
After the film project's collapse, without his collaborators' permission, Fleming based his ''
Thunderball'' (1961) novel upon their joint work.
In 1963 McClory and Whittingham sued him for plagiarism. ''The Battle for Bond'' concerns the court case.
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 also entitled him to remake ''Thunderball'' (1965) as ''
Never Say Never Again'' (1983), again with Sean Connery as James Bond, the cinematic competition Broccoli had tried to legally ban.
With the remake, McClory attempted to continue with his own James Bond film series, but was stopped after legal action 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
Eon or Eons may refer to: Time
* Aeon, an indefinite long period of time
* Eon (geology), a division of the geologic time scale
Arts and entertainment
Fictional characters
* Eon, in the 2007 film '' Ben 10: Race Against Time''
* Eon, in the ...
film series.
Legal ban of the first edition
The book features unpublished letters, private lawsuit documents and cast-crew interviews; there are also five ''Thunderball'' screenplays, two by Fleming, three by Whittingham, and two treatments by Fleming that document the creation and development of this James Bond project. The Ian Fleming estate, the Ian Fleming Will Trust, protested the inclusion of several Fleming letters in the book, which it said were used without permission. The book was subsequently withdrawn and unsold copies sent to the estate for disposal.
The publisher, Tomahawk Press, later published a second edition without the letters, which it claimed were not fundamental to the story.
See also
*
Outline of James Bond
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle for Bond, The
2007 non-fiction books
Non-fiction books about James Bond