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The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinema's Greatest Hero | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Sellers
Publisher: Tomahawk Press (GA)
Category: Book
List Price: $32.00
Buy New: $23.36
You Save: $8.64 (27%)
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 86750
Media: Paperback
Edition: American
Pages: 300
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0953192636
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43651
EAN: 9780953192632
ASIN: 0953192636
Publication Date: August 10, 2007
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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Product Description
Cinema history might have been very different had the first James Bond film not been Dr. No in 1962 starring Sean Connery, but Thunderball directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1959 and starring Richard Burton as agent 007. It sounds preposterous and unbelievable, but it almost happened. The Battle for Bond unravels the untold story behind the most controversial part of the James Bond legend using previously unpublished material including letters and private documents. It is a tale of bitter recriminations, betrayal, multi-million dollar lawsuits and even death. It starts way back in 1959 when colorful Irish film producer Kevin McClory collaborated with Ian Fleming and Hollywood screenwriter Jack Whittingham on a screenplay for what was intended to be the first ever James Bond film, entitled Thunderball. When the project collapsed, Fleming instead used its plot as the basis for his next Bond novel, but without permission. An incensed McClory and Whittingham sued. The resulting trial was one of the most high profile and complex of the 1960s. Essentially the creator of the 20th century s greatest fictional character was in the dock, accused of plagiarism. Already gravely ill, many of Fleming s friends feared the pressure of the trial would have a detrimental effect on his health. Tragically they were proved right when only a few months later Fleming died of a massive heart attack aged only 56. As for Kevin McClory, he became a millionaire over night, winning the film rights to Thunderball. He was now in the enviable position of being able to make his own 007 movie. But the already established Sean Connery series was a hard act to compete with and McClory instead decided to join forces with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in a one-off deal to co-produce Thunderball. Released in time for Christmas 1965, Thunderball was the Star Wars of its day, becoming one of the most successful films in movie history. In preparing the book the author was granted exclusive access to a wealth of previously unpublished material including hundreds of letters from the principal characters in the Thunderball story, including Fleming himself, business and private documents and never before seen papers from the 1963 court case. And also the five different screenplays that were written for Thunderball - two from Fleming and three from Jack Whittingham. The author also interviewed many of the actors and production people who worked on Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. Their memories and colourful anecdotes bring to life two of the most successful and universally popular Bond movies of all time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 The Difficult Birth of 007 September 22, 2008
The JuRK (Our Vast, Cultural Desert)
This is certainly a good book for the James Bond fan (I include myself). br / br /It's probably worth reading for the general movie fan as well since one can see the roles of chance and chaos in any creative endeavor. br / br /The simple story of producers Albert R. Broccoli Harry Saltzmann finding the 007 books by Ian Fleming and creating the biggest franchise in movie history just didn't come about that easily. In fact, Broccoli Saltzmann don't play very big roles in THE BATTLE FOR BOND. br / br /The first third of the book meticulously chronicles Ian Fleming's attempts to get Bond on the silver screen, quoting or just reprinting the letters and cables between Fleming, his friends/business associates, the producer Kevin McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham. It quickly becomes a mess. br / br /The middle third discusses the filming of "Thunderball" with plenty of interesting tidbits from actors and crew. br / br /The final third follows the chaotic set of McClory Sean Connery's "renegade" Bond film, "Never Say Never Again," as well as McClory's attempts to hang on to Bond to his dying day. br / br /What jumped out at me while reading THE BATTLE FOR BOND was just how little happiness 007 and "Thunderball" brought to the principle personalities. Ian Fleming, already in failing health from 60 cigarettes a day and heavy drinking, slowly burned out and died of a heart attack just a few months after settling with McClory. Jack Whittingham also suffered from severe heart problems and risked death to participate in a trial that profited him nothing. br / br /Sean Connery, the actor who would become the biggest movie star in the world in perhaps the most iconic film character of the 20th Century, was sick to death of Bond by 1965's "Thunderball" and miserable. He then returned to the role in 1983's "Never Say Never Again" and was even more miserable shooting that unorganized film. br / br /And Kevin McClory, who begins this saga as a scrappy underdog but ends as a disgraceful, greedy thorn in everyone's side, ends a broken, bitter man, his last tenuous grasp on Bond finally wrenched from his dying fingers by the courts shortly before his death. br / br /I wouldn't call it "The Curse of Bond," but it doesn't look like any of the leads really savored and enjoyed the success of James Bond and "Thunderball." br / br /(Financially, Broccoli Saltzmann would benefit the most but they don't play major roles in this book. There are plenty of people who complain about how cheap they were--Sean Connery first and foremost--but the author doesn't go into much detail about them.) br / br /A worthy entry in the Bond lore.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang May 8, 2008
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)
The book features not one but two villains, but they are so beautifully brought to life you can see their characters in the round, as it were, humans with failings just like the rest of us. One was Ian Fleming himself, who comes across in THE BATTLE FOR BOND as a pop genius like Warhol with a great invention, the James Bond character, and yet a weakness for trampling over the rights of others out of his sense of clubby privilege which is fairly sickening after a few chapters. So when he employs others to help him sketch out a screenplay that will feature his Bond character, he doesn't even think twice about novelizing their joint effort and publishing it under his own name. He had what became the modern equivalent of the old fashioned "droit du seigneur," and the others were just pawns in his game. br / br /The second "villain who's not really a villain" was the crazy swinger Kevin McClory, technically he was used and abused by Ian Fleming but he sure wound up with his pound of flesh didn't he! Author Robert Sellers, the one man who was able to pick up and tell the whole wretched and confused saga from beginning to end, makes you eventually loathe Kevin, even though he started out as the underdog. Kevin was the type of friend than which you'd rather have an enemy, so you hold him in your embrace just so you can see what he's doing with his hands. br / br /The hero of the book winds up to be Jack Whittingham, a venerable and talented screenwriter whom BOTH McClory and Fleming took up, then cast aside. AND his daughter, the beautiful singer and office manager Sylvan Whittingham, who kept all the papers together for forty years and then finally, with the help of a faithful lawyer, Peter Carter-Ruck, brought all the pieces together to tell a strange and disturbing story of genius gone mad. As Sellers points out, the saga of Carter-Ruck is like a Shakespearean tragedy, but the same can be said for the sad and wasted life of Kevin McClory. At the very end of the book there's a great photo of a little girl, Jack Whittingham's granddaughter, Aimi, inspecting with all the unconscious grace of a child, the neatly cared for grave of her grandad. It's in Malta, of all places, an island he loved. br / br /I did not know a thousand facts that Sellers lets on: that Julie Christie was considered for the role of Domino; that Luciana Paluzzi considered Claudine Auger cold and calculating; that Dirk Bogarde might have been James Bond--or Rod Taylor--both of them I guess, not so bad choices. The angry figure of Sean Connery permeates the flavor of the book like a simmering stew of bad feeling that will not go away. He's great, but like everyone else in the book bar the Whittinghams, his life has been misspent chasing money and licking wounded pride. br / br /A saga big as BLEAK HOUSE and as captivating as CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, except for grown ups.
battle for bond May 2, 2008
C. S. Hanson (england, united kingdom)
A brilliant, well researched indepth study of a ongoing war between two rival film companies on the greatest film hero of all time JAMES BOND and the movies THUNDERBALL and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Buy it now...because in ENGLAND the book has been through the law courts and consequently has been banned from sale, it will be reprinted minus a few items that caused quite a fuss. So buy it now from amazon usa
For Bond Fans March 5, 2008
L. Cabos (planet earth)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Alot of the history of THUNDERBALL isn't new to me but Sellers writes a really entertaining and fascinating bit of history. I couldn't put it down until I had finished it -- in one seating. Great treasure of previously unseen material (Connery scouting the State of Liberty for the never made WARHEAD, production drawings, rare photos, etc). As it has been pulled off the market because litigation from the Fleming Trust (who could they be? Fleming's been dead since 1964, his wife died years ago and his only son died from a drug overdose in the early 1970's) so it is going to be harder to get. Worth the effort!
Top Marks! February 15, 2008
A. Nicastro
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are many of us who do care to know the true story about Thunderball - have a look at the uk reviews! This is a landmark book and contains fresh information on this fascinating subject. Top marks to author Robert Sellers who tells an unbiased factual story about the origins of the Bond movies
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