![]()
"Good to see you again, Mr. Bond." (Graphic by the late Paul Baack.)
Ten years ago, it was announced that Danjaq/Eon had gotten the rights back to Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE.
Danaq/Eon along with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer said they had reached a deal with the estate of Kevin McClory to acquire "all of the estate's and family's rights and interests relating to James Bond, thus bringing to an amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years."
In the 1960s, Kevin McClory had a legal fight with Ian Fleming. Eventually, the result was Fleming could continue to publish his Thunderball novel, while McClory would have the film rights to the Thunderball book and the screenplays it was based on. Eon reached a deal with McClory so Thunderball would be part of the Eon film series.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, McClory began trying to develop a movie based on his Thunderball rights. After legal fights with Eon, a Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again, came out in 1983, the same year as Eon's Octopussy. McClory persisted for years trying to make other films.
McClory died in 2006. But the McClory rights issue still cast a shadow over Eon.
Eon rebooted the series starting with 2006's Casino Royale. With 2008's Quantum of Solace, a new villainous organized was introduced called Quantum. In the buildup to that film, Eon's leadership, in effect, said SPECTRE was passe and that Quantum was *something new*.
Until, of course, Nov. 15, 2013. Blofeld and SPECTRE would get shoehorned into 2015's SPECTRE. So much for the Quantum is the new and exciting villainous group talking point.
In 2014, Sony Pictures (which released four Bond movies) was hacked. Various emails and other correspondence became public. During the development of SPECTRE, it turned out, Eon considered an African warlord version of Blofeld and a woman version of Blofeld.
The production eventually went with a (somewhat) updated version of the 1967 Donald Pleasance's Blofeld played by Christoph Waltz. Also, the Waltz Blofeld was revealed to be Bond's foster brother. Many long-time Bond fans groaned. In addition, 2012's Skyfall was retconned so that movie's villain, Silva, was working for SPECTRE all along.
The results were mixed. Waltz's Blofeld was brought back for 2021's No Time to Die only to be killed by events manipulated by that movie's villain, Safin. The Waltz version of SPECTRE also got wiped out pretty quickly.
In the end? The news of a decade ago brought about a mixed result.
No comments:
Post a Comment