James Bond 007 Blog

I recently had a chance to look over a new book by Robert Sellers entitled The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinema’s Greatest Hero.

The book actually came out last summer, but Midpoint Trade Books NYC, Inc graciously sent over a review copy a few weeks ago.

The book is the account of Kevin McClory’s efforts to insert himself into the James Bond franchise. He, Ian Fleming and Ivar Bryce had started a project to bring Fleming’s hero to the big screen, and with the help of screenwriter Jack Whittingham, put together a screenplay for Thunderball. Fleming and Bryce however, were growing less than enamored of McClory and decided to cancel the project.

Fleming then went ahead and published the novel Thunderball using many aspects of the screenplay. It resulted in a much publicized court case, which took a heavy toll on the health of both Fleming and Whittingham, who traded heart attacks during the process. Eventually the court ruled in favor of McClory.

He was unable to make the move himself, and teamed up with Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who by that time had already produced the first three James Bond movies. Thunderball was a huge hit, and the book contains many stories of the production and all that was involved. Some of this information I had seen and heard before, but much of it was new.

After making the movie, McClory wanted more, but had to wait 10 years to use his rights again. Right on cue in 1975, he announced that he would be making Warhead, and that Sean Connery would be involved in the project. That project eventually resulted in Never Say Never Again - and the book has plenty of information on the production of that movie (which was a total mess).

McClory continued into the 1990’s and even the early parts of this decade, determined to make a third movie based on the Thunderball material. He even claimed that he created the cinematic version of Bond, which was different from Fleming’s character in the novels. He filed suit after suit in this quest, but died a lonely, broken man.

The book was interesting to me because of the letters between the principals involved. You also get to see some of Fleming’s efforts at a screenplay, which to me, was gold, as I was reading new narrative from Fleming on Bond…something I didn’t think I’d ever do again. One can only wish that Fleming’s entire screenplays might see the light of day at some point.

One person who really annoyed me was Never Say Never Again director Irvin Kershner, who apparently only directed the movie for the paycheck. By his own admission, he had only seen two James Bond movies prior to directing NSNA and he even had this to say about Ian Fleming:

Just from having seen a couple of Bond films I knew what the so-called formula was; license to kill, plenty of women, action, that’s about it. There’s nothing else to them. I didn’t think Fleming was a great writer at all. In fact, I thought he was a mediocre writer.

Did Kershner believe that the Bond movies actually represented Fleming’s work? Had he actually read any of the novels? He just comes off as a total buffoon.

The book mostly revolves around McClory, but Jack Whittingham is a large figure as well. Much of the material from the book came from Whittingham’s papers, which his family had kept. Whittingham’s daughter, Sylvan, who contributed much to the telling of the story. (She’s had an interesting life herself.)

The following BBC video looks at the book, and also notes the objections from the Ian Fleming Will Trust, who filed suit to stop the distribution of the book, because of the plagiarism theme and because this is the centennial of Fleming birth and many events are planned for this year.

It seems like if you’re able to grab a copy of this book, you’d better do it while you can…I highly recommend it, as it is a fascinating look into the business side of Bond. I don’t think Ian Fleming comes off too poorly in it either, although he clearly made some unwise decisions along the way.