Page "Never Say Never Again" Paragraph 27

Never Say Never Again had its origins in the early 1960s following the controversy over the 1961 Thunderball novel.

Fleming, along with independent producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham had worked together on a script for a potential Bond film, to be called Longitude 78 West, which was subsequently abandoned because of the costs involved.

Fleming, " always reluctant to let a good idea lie idle ", turned this into the novel Thunderball which did not credit either McClory or Whittingham ; McClory then took Fleming to the High Court in London for breach of copyright and the matter was settled in 1963.

After Eon Productions started producing the Bond films, they subsequently made a deal with McClory, who would produce Thunderball, and then not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965.