"The Book that Lives twice"
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Thank goodness the banning of this book that resulted in the pulping of the 1st edition has been overturned.
This excellent book tells the story of the 1st attempt to make a Bond film that resulted in the scripts that were partially cannibalised for the novel "Thunderball"
The main meat is the unsucessful attempts by Kevin McClory to set up a Bond film and the court case that resulted from the accusations of plagiarism of the scripts for Fleming's novel. Sellers paints a fascinating picture of a film world that was intrigued by James Bond but never enough to put serious money or commitment into it.
It becomes clear that despite an positive start to the venture Fleming and his mate Bryce fell out with McClory and they ended up as a group who couldn't work together.
One of the possible reasons that the Ian Fleming Trust saw red with this book may be because no one emerges with much credit. Fleming did plagiarise to some extent but given there is nothing ever stating his position we'll never know quite how aware he was of his position.
The book goes on past the court case to detail the making of Thunderball and Never say Never Again, plus the lengthy development of the orginal incarnation of Never, Warhead. The story is brought up to date with the further attempts to make new versions of Thunderball and McClory's final attempt to gain some control over the Bond franchise.
Interesting things emerging include the potential involvment of Hitchcock, how much Connery clearly liked McClory, the fact that the original screenwriter Jack Whittingham lost the most of all (he liked Fleming but felt he had to support McClory's court case and having been paid for his work never got anything out of it)and how little there was in place supporting McClory's post Never attempts to make a new Bond film.
Lengthy summaries are available for Fleming's treatments, Whittingham's scripts and the Warhead script.
If you are a fan of 007 books, films or both then this is a must have.
Here's hoping Robert Sellers does a similar volume on Casino Royale!
Thunderball (Penguin Viking Lit Fiction)James Bond - Thunderball (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1965]Never Say Never Again [1983]
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