Bond at 50: TV, Spoofs, Lawsuits & Remakes, and How Spiderman Saved 007: The "Other" Bond Productions

The "real" James Bond movies are the Eon produced movies.  They fall within the lineage of Albert Satzman and Cubby Broccoli and are the progeny of Dr. No and From Russia With Love.

But there are three other James Bond films: one for television and two movies. And the intrigue connected with these films would make a movie by itself.

Peter Lorre as LeChiffre & Barry Nelson as James Bond (1954)

Casino Royale (1954) Climax!  This American television production stared Barry Nelson as "Jimmy" Bond and Peter Lorre as LeChiffre. The black and white production was largely forgotten until an old kinescope was found by a television historian in 1981.  As you would expect for 1950s television, it was a sanitized condensed version, though largely true to the book.  

James Bond - the television series that wasn't:  In the late 1950s, CBS contracted with Fleming to write 30 television episodes for a potential James Bond series. However the idea faded away, and Fleming used three of the scripts for his short story collection For Your Eyes Only.
 
Casino Royale (1967). Producer Charles K. Feldman had purchased the film rights to Casino Royale from Fleming. He tried to interest Eon in producing the film as part of the Bond series. When a deal could not be struck, he turned the novel into a Bond spoof.  It's a horrid spoof with Woody Allen, Peter Sellers and a host of others.  

Spiderman and James Bond: In 1999, MGM acquired the rights to Casino Royale leading to Eon's 2006 reboot of the series.  They obtained the rights making a trade with Sony -- for the rights to Spiderman.

Never Say Never Again (1983), This was a remake of Thunderball with the return of an older Sean Connery.  While it was favorably received by critics, I thought the remake was a bad idea in which its underwater scenes paled in comparison to the original, as did its villain. 

Thunderball / Never Say Never Again - The legal battle.  The legal course of Thunderball / Never Say Never Again is as convoluted as any James Bond plot.  
  
Thunderball and the super-crime organization SPECTRE, were conceived as the first effort to bring James Bond to the movie screen.  It was the product of a collaboration between five people:  Bond creator Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, though a court decision determined that only Fleming, McClory and Whittingham would be credited.  

When the movie project fell through, Fleming used the screenplay as the basis for his novel.  McClory sued unsuccessfully to stop publication. He also sued for damages for copyright infringement. The case went to trial in England's Chancery Court.  Fleming was ill and suffered a heart attack during the trial. He settled to put the case behind him.  Fleming died 9 months later when he suffered another heart attack.

As part of the settlement, McClory was given the rights to the Thunderball screenplay. Still possessing those rights in 1983, McClory sought another payday resulting in Never Say Never Again.