Re Terrill Lankford's comment below:
"I would like to see the character explored by other
filmmakers. The
Bond flicks have a tendency to blend together
nowadays."
As you may know, the rights to *Thunderball* are not owned by
the
Saltzman/Broccoli company, but by an Irsh film producer named
Kevin
McClory. The rights fell to him during a lawsuit against
Fleming in
which he claimed that *Thunderball* was not an original
novel, but a
novelization of an original film script, *James Bond - Secret
Agent*,
on which McClory and a third writer whose name escapes me
collaborated
with Fleming. When the film deal fell through, Fleming,
McClory
alleged, simply used the plot for his novel
*Thunderball*.
In the mid-60s, McClory, in a deal with the Saltzman/Broccoli
outfit,
produced the first *Thunderball* for them, with the proviso
that the
rights would revert to him after 10 years.
In 1983, he his remake of *Thunderball*, *Never Say Never
Again*, in
which Connery returned to the role that made him famous, was
released
as an independent production.
In recent interviews McClory has stated that he plans to make
a new,
independent Bond film, *Warhead 2000*, possibly with Timothy
Dalton
returning to the role, as the third film version of
*Thunderball*.
If he manages to bring this production off (and far more
productions
get planned than ever get made), you may get your wish to see
Bond
handled by another production company. - Jim Doherty
--UNS_gsauns2_3046268352--
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