Kevin McClory...
Colonel Shatner
Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
What was the deal with Kevin McClory, a highly controversial, and tragic figure within the Bond franchise?
He directed Thunderball, but for long decades since then he jealously held onto the legal rights to SPECTRE, and Blofeld until his hands literally went cold, and dead. I heard it was largely to do with vague behind scenes wrangling when McClory helped to formulate the Bond film franchise alongside Ian Fleming, and EON (where McClory claimed EON and Mr. Fleming allegedly stole his ideas).
But what the heck did Kevin McClory gain apart from churning out the middling Never Say Never Again, and totally squandering a promising career as a filmaker? Why didn't the selfish, and proud twit simply cut his losses and move on, like EON did? This rather sad person was trying to screw everybody else but was ultimately only screwing himself in the long run...
He directed Thunderball, but for long decades since then he jealously held onto the legal rights to SPECTRE, and Blofeld until his hands literally went cold, and dead. I heard it was largely to do with vague behind scenes wrangling when McClory helped to formulate the Bond film franchise alongside Ian Fleming, and EON (where McClory claimed EON and Mr. Fleming allegedly stole his ideas).
But what the heck did Kevin McClory gain apart from churning out the middling Never Say Never Again, and totally squandering a promising career as a filmaker? Why didn't the selfish, and proud twit simply cut his losses and move on, like EON did? This rather sad person was trying to screw everybody else but was ultimately only screwing himself in the long run...
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
Comments
I like it how McClory had Terence Young's name listed as director to irritate Young. McClory did a fabulous job directing Thunderball.
He did the same thing with E.T. He directed E.T., but had Steven Spielberg's name listed as the film's director to annoy him.
Frankly, in my shoes, and under the same circumstances, I would've done the same. Fleming was a brilliant writer and a man of taste, but men aren't completely infallible, and they're certainly prone to human characteristics like the rest of us.
Don't be a sarcastic twit, and stop spamming, he was still the producer of Thunderball, although I always assumed he was the director due to McClory being continuously associated with the movie as it's creator (but I carefully checked McClory's profile on IMDb - he didn't direct NSNA either but was it's executive producer).
I don't think he was evil or a mass murderer either, but what he did was still exceedingly silly, with his professional whinging severly alienating both Bond fandom, and perhaps Hollywood as well (if his non-resume outside of NSNA is anything to go by).
I heard that some Bond fans with no lives were threatening McClory as late as the 1990s, when he was elderly, and in ill health - I don't fully sympathise with McClory's choice, but it's only movies, and nothing worth to give death threats over. And EON carried on making Bond movies in spite of McClory, not because of him (although he was really shooting himself in the foot).
That is essentially what happened. And I find that rather depressing.
Too bad McClory didn't.
Once again agreeing with The Cat, the book The Battle For Bond covers this subject in great detail. Some brief points for those who haven't read it:
(1) McClory was originally set to direct James Bond's first cinematic adventure. When this proved impractical, he was still to be involved with such a film as a producer. The script was contributed to by Fleming, McClory, professional screenwriter Jack Whittingham, and Fleming's friend Ernest Cuneo (later to receive a dedication in TB). When the whole idea of such a film fell through, Fleming worked up a novel using some of the ideas jointly worked on and called it Thunderball. On reading the book, McClory sued Fleming stating that some of the characters and plot elements/ideas were his/his and Whittinghams/his, Whittinghams and Flemings.
(2) Rather than vague behind scenes wrangling, his rights were confirmed by a very public court case involving Ian Fleming, Ivar Bryce and Jack Whittingham (the first two against McClory, the third on his side). The case left him with the film rights to TB (aka NSNA, "Warhead", etc) although it would remain a published Fleming novel with a credit to McClory & Whittingham.
(3) After (at least ostensibly) making plans to use his film rights using such stars as Richard Burton or Laurence Harvey as Bond, McClory came to a deal with Broccoli & Saltzman to produce TB together starring Sean Connery (at that point under contract to EON and the only actor identified worldwide with Bond). TB was a very profitable picture.
I guess he was motivated by the feeling of being cheated out of running the Bond franchise in the late 50s, even though he ended up producing Thunderball, and could've easily moved onto other things, finding better success elsewhere (likeStar Trek's Harlan Ellison).
And while I never personally knew the guy, and McClory inflicted far more damage on his film career than on the Bond franchise, I can see why it wasn't hard for Bond fandom or mainstream Hollywood to dislike Kev, even if he was initially a big driving force behind the making of the Bond movies, and had carried out a minor triumph with Never Say Never Again.
I think that McClory has been cast as the bad guy for no good reason simply than everbody likes a bad guy.
I thought that part of the reason that some did though was due to the speculation that the trial aggravated Fleming’s health problems and helped lead to his early demise.
I also thought that it was fairly clear that Fleming did use some of the ideas from the screenplay that they both worked on, right or wrong.
I have Sellars book and am anxious to start it so that I can get the whole story.
The real question is, were Bond movies being made after the mid 60s because of Kevin McClory's incessant litigation whingings or despite of them? Remember he nearly derailed the making of The Spy Who Loved Me, preventing the use of SPECTRE in a different storyline where SPECTRE goes through a powerstruggle, and rival terrorists take over from the old leadership.
That was a potentially good storyline completely wasted because of McClory's selfishness, even though he was not entirely in the wrong to begin with in regards to his legal case, and undoubtly had a role in the inception of Blofeld and SPECTRE.
He did not do anything legally wrong, but just because something is legal does not neccessarily make it morally right, and not only was McClory scapegoated by fans for Fleming's early death because of stress in court, I heard Kevin McClory gave Jack Whittingham the cold shoulder only a few years after Thunderball (also dying not that long after in 1972). I'm sorry, but this gives me the impression of McClory being a rather stupid, overtly ruthless, bitter, and obsessively possessive little man, even though he initially had a lot of bad luck in his abortive attempt in bringing Bond to the big screen, and supposedly had his ideas stolen.
I don't have any hard feelings, and it sounds pathetic that some Bond fans were still given Kevin McClory death threats as recently as 1999 after all those years, when he had long lost his legal battles and was a sad, elderly man. But he was the man who essentially tied his own rope to hang himself with back in the 60s and 70s.
Call me cynical, but I don't think any of the parties can claim the moral high ground in this situation. I don't for a minute believe that Ian Fleming was acting with clean hands when he borrowed the film plot for Thunderball. He was too smart to know he couldn't just take a story someone else created--no matter that he had a hand in it--and pass it off entirely as his own. That he created and owned James Bond is beside the point--he owed it to McClory and Whittingham to at least say they had a hand in the storyline. I think what Fleming did explains why EON to this day returns all unsolicited scripts unread.
Certainly it is wrong to blame McClory for Fleming's heart attack. Looking at Fleming's lifestyle--heavy smoker, heavy drinker, lover of fatty foods, depressive--he was a bomb ready to go off. Anyone who hints that McClory "killed" Fleming are like P. B. Shelley insisting that the tubercular John Keats was "killed" by a bad review of his poems. But as for McClory giving Whittingham the cold shoulder--who knows why he did this? Maybe he had good reason. I don't know. I wasn't there. As I've said before, whatever McClory did or didn't do, he mostly hurt himself.
Except how was it morally wrong? What was so immoral about what McClory did? It's one thing to criticise McClory, but to bring morality into is pushing it IMO.
I can not comment on any of this as this is outside my area of expertise, but I think you're being extremely harsh on him. Was he really worse than any of the people involved with Bond? I mean, Cubby was fantastic, but I'm fairly certain he was as ruthless as they come.
oh please.
I've heard bad things about McClory, and about Fleming for that matter...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
McClory had every right to defend intellectual property, but he pushed that way too far at the detriment of his career and his former collegues - he could've asked for a royalty payment everytime SPECTRE or Blofeld was used in a story, but they were both limited plot devices anyway past OHMSS, and McClory jealously guarding the rights fruitlessly for so long puzzles me. And Fleming was in very poor health regardless...
Of course Cubby, Fleming, and Slatzman were undoubtly very ruthless people and were after money as well. But remember people hypocritically dislike failed and pathetic a**holes like Kevin McClory more than successful ones such as Cubby Broccoli.
All I'm merely saying is that I heard rumours that Kevin McClory received death threats from some fans decades after his legal case, not that I condone it.
As far as him wanting credit for Thunderball, that is fine. I did not like, however, how he sometimes acted like he helped create the film franchise and even Bond himself at times. He milked it for all it was worth.
He did not create James Bond 007. Therefore, I think he should have never had the right to use 007, M, Q and Moneypenny in NSNA because those are Fleming creations. If he HAD to remake TB, he should have used the plot elements, SPECTRE, Blofeld, Domino, etc. and a Bond like character and not Bond himself. If EON could not use his SPECTRE in TSWLM, why did he get to use Fleming's 007 character in NSNA? Seems a bit weird to me. 8-)
I also dislike how Cubby and Saltzman did not get a producer's credit in Thunderball's opening credits and were just "presenters".
Also, did anyone notice that he died the Monday after Casino Royale came out. That is so crazy. Either he held on long enough to see Craig, or the film was so bad it killed him!