Some "Never Say Never Again" Trivia

Above, Sean Connery and Kim Basinger. Orion/Warner Bros.

For the first time in a while, I watched Sean Connery's last outing as James Bond in Never Say Never Again (1983). 

It hadn't struck me before, but I got curious as to the age differences between Connery and co-star Kim Basinger at time time of the movie's production.

At the time of production, Connery was 52 (he was three years younger than Bond successor Roger Moore) and Basinger was 29. She's only a couple of months older than me. 

At the time, or since, I don't remember if Connery's and Basinger's age differences ever became an "issue". It would be considered as a May-December romance these days.

For those who aren't aware, Never Say Never Again is a remake of Thunderball (1965).

According to Wikipedia:

Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had been previously adapted as the 1965 film of the same name. Never Say Never Again is the second and most recent James Bond film not to be produced by Eon Productions, the usual producer of the Bond series, but by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and was distributed by Warner Bros. instead of United Artists. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory had retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.

Never Say Never Again had its origins in the early 1960s, following the controversy over the 1961 Thunderball novel. Fleming had worked with independent producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham on a script for a potential Bond film, to be called Longitude 78 West, which was subsequently abandoned because of the costs involved. Fleming, "always reluctant to let a good idea lie idle", turned this into the novel Thunderball, for which he did not credit either McClory or Whittingham; McClory then took Fleming to the High Court in London for breach of copyright, and the matter was settled in 1963. After Eon Productions started producing the Bond films, it subsequently made a deal with McClory, who would produce Thunderball, and then not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years, following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965.

The Return of Ernst Stavro Blofeld?

Above, Blofeld in "Thunderball" (1965). Photo: Eon Productions/ United Artists.

James Bond's "friend with the cat" may be coming back, according to an article posted at Japan Today.

According to the article:

LOS ANGELES —Could Blofeld be back? 

The archvillain from the James Bond films — who’s often seen stroking a white cat — might be making a return to the big screen following a settlement announced Friday between studio MGM, production company Danjaq and the estate of Kevin McClory. 

McClory was a co-writer of the 1965 movie “Thunderball” with Bond book writer Ian Fleming but was embroiled in a legal dispute over the movie rights for over 50 years. 

On Friday, the three parties announced that Danjaq and MGM had acquired all of the rights and interests relating to James Bond from the McClory estate and family. 

Terms weren’t disclosed.

The McClory family’s law firm said McClory created the iconic character, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the global terrorist organization he headed, SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), which were not part of the original novels.

To read the full story, go here. 

Found "Thunderball" - Collection Complete

My Ian Fleming James Bond 007 book collection is now complete!

I discovered another used bookstore in Pasadena this morning and found the last Ian Fleming novel that I needed to complete my collection.  I found most of the others at the Iliad Bookstore in North Hollywood.

The book I needed was Thunderball (right).

The bookstore I bought it from was Book Alley at 1252  E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91106.  Telephone (626) 683-8083.

Book Alley is a nice little bookstore and well-organized. I was able to find the section that contained the Fleming books pretty easily.

They have their own website at www.bookalley.com.

After leaving Book Alley, I had breakfast at a diner a block away.  More on that in another blog post.

About Thunderball, the story is essentially the same as in the 1965 movie with Sean Connery.  The story is not original to Ian Fleming, however.

To make a long story short, Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham came up with a screenplay of Thunderball.

According to Wikipedia:

Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond.

The lawsuit was settled out of court with McClory and Whittingham retaining some rights.  Fleming's novel continued to be published, but credit to McClory and Whittingham had to be given.  In the edition I bought, credit is shown on the title page as:

This story is based on a screen treatment by K. McClory, J. Whittingham and the author.

A remake involving the basic plot of Thunderball was produced in 1983 as Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery.