A long lasting bitter feud emerged during Sean Connery’s term as 007, so that he continues to be on bad terms with the series producers. The most obvious statement of this was the 1983 movie ‘Never Say Never Again’, a movie often considered part of the Bond canon, which is however an unofficial entry, with no involvement by the production house behind the Bond movies proper. The movie was originally intended to be released in direct competition with Roger Moores ‘Octopussy’, this did not occur, though both were released in the same year and ultimately Moore’s portrayal was more financially and critically successful. Connery must have had a sense of deja vu as ‘Never Say Never Again’ was a remake of ‘Thunderball’, following a plot of his travails in recovering stolen war heads in the Bahamas. This was made possible through a conflict over Flemings source novel, a colleague of Flemings, Kevin McClory, working on a script with the novelist, ended up with remake rights to ‘Thunderball’, the outcome of a legal dispute over the ideas for the novel. McClory has a creator credit on Thunderball, possibly another term of the settlement. Whatever elements appear in both movies, were owned by both parties to the dispute, notably the structure of the opening sequence changes and John Barry declined the offer to contribute music.

The first ever Bond film without a title written by Fleming, the production saw Connery return to the role of Bond after 12 years, looking distinctly more grey around the temples. Of all the information I’ve uncovered in looking into this movie the most fascinating bit is that on foot of a controversial scene in which it was suggested harm had come to a horse, therein movie credits included the disclaimer no animal had been harmed in the filming of the movie. ‘Never Say Never Again’ was eventually bought by MGM, the parent company of the franchise in 1997, so that it now sits comfortably in the Bond box sets, nevertheless it serves as an interesting oddity in Bond lore.