But in ’61, despite the ongoing legal dispute, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, together with United Artists, commissioned Richard Maibaum to write a screenplay based on the Thunderball novel. They had no assignment of film rights from Fleming, McClory or Whittingham. They intended to film Thunderball as the first in a series of James Bond movies and they even used the script to lure Sean Connery to the series, who is quoted as saying,
“The first James Bond film which I was hired for was Thunderball for United Artists and the first [Bond] script I was given to read by Broccoli and Saltzman’s company was Thunderball.”
Because of the lawsuit, they were not able to use the script as the first Bond film, but elements of Thunderball were incorporated into the first film Dr. No, most importantly, the introduction of SPECTRE.
More lawsuits followed and, eventually, Kevin McClory was given the full rights to SPECTRE and the Thunderball story. This settlement resulted in Never Say Never Again, a 1983 spin off Bond film, produced by McClory, famous for bringing Sean Connery back to the series.
In the decades that followed, various rumors were heard about McClory creating another unofficial film. After decades of lawsuits, Kevin McClory died on November 20, 2006, and the rights to Thunderball, Blofeld and SPECTRE passed on to his estate. In 2013, McClory’s family finally agreed to return those rights to MGM and the creators of all official Bond films. The agreement finally put an end to the 50 year-old rivalry and paved the way for the film being released today, which contrary to some reports just might feature Christophe Walz as Blofeld. (if they own the name, why wouldn’t they use it?) The tile of the film? SPECTRE.