And it is indeed not very likely Fleming informed Eon he intended to reuse the character as a major villain in the future.
Or perhaps he did? As TB was indeed the first scripted Bond film, would Fleming have also not read that script just to give his opinion? Guy Haines' own theory posted above makes sense, namely that the producers didn't want to make the Russians the villains, so just used Spectre.
It's of course possible, no doubt about that. And without any proper form of written documentation it will be impossible to rule this out entirely.
Yet, I somehow still think it's unlikely Fleming went so far as to set Broccoli and Saltzman into the picture regarding his future plans.
Why? Take a look at the events from - roughly - December 1958 up until the remarkably swift agreement that was reached in December 1963. Fleming, his friends Cuneo and Bryce and on the other side McClory and Jack Whittingham became involved in an unbelievably complicated legal battle that showed each player - with the possible exception of Jack Whittingham - in a most unflattering light, to say the least. Greed and ambition, lies and deception worked to cook up a most unpleasant affair that cost Fleming a hefty price in terms of nerves, of time and possibly of health, too. All because he wanted to see his creation on the big screen and several efforts had proved abortive. How was he to know the gin-and-tonic idea of a friend - practically given for free - would in the end result in the most serious effort to that date, but also threaten his entire work, his reputation and ultimately the deal he made later with Eon?
Fleming was more than just a little lax with the legal side of his efforts, had things gone wrong he could have ended up in court a couple of more times. After McClory sued him it must have become painfully clear for him how lucky he had been all those years before.
Now is it really realistic, in light of this, that Fleming didn't just intend to make use of material (SPECTRE here) that was by all means still up in the air from a legal point of view? Would he on top of that also be inclined to the lunacy of reaching out with his freshly burned fingers and hand Eon informally part of a blueprint for future works? Maybe even during an informal meeting over drinks, causing him another hangover five years later?
I don't think so.
From what I read about the case Fleming himself was hugely affected by the legal troubles. Partially perhaps because he honestly never thought it was possible it would come to such an affair, partially no doubt because a lot of the blame has to be laid at his door, from his initial naïveté to his fickle opinion regarding McClory's qualities to the bold move to just use the project as that year's book when he was out of ideas himself. Fleming jumped as a tiger and landed as bedside rug. I think he was cured very effectively from any throwaway gestures without covering his own.
My personal theory is the initiative on this one came from Eon, namely probably from Saltzman. According to Sellers' book Saltzman was very bullish about the matter. Eon had gotten their own legal advice on the case and they were supposedly optimistic Bryce and Fleming could have won, if only just Bryce had not caved in. I seem to remember they even were prepared to push the matter further, perhaps to a point where they could have squeezed out McClory. Eon were not happy about the settlement and supposedly had tried to prevent it. Back in the day when DR NO was in production McClory could have stalled all their efforts, but was more concerned about his showdown with Fleming.
Eon probably heard the same things McClory did when he sought after a good law firm to take over his case: McClory should try and settle. Eon's offer to buy his TB rights at the time probably would have been the reasonable thing to do for McClory. All the more so as he was not yet married to the rich Bobo Sigrist who could afford to support even a lengthy battle. On balance I'd say at the time of the DR NO script things looked reasonably well for Fleming and thus for Eon. I suppose they included this dialogue indeed as the equivalent to a popular modern gesture. It could be easily cut without damaging the film, should there be indeed trouble. And it opened the door to numerous possibilities. In the worst case the lines could be dubbed with some other kind of abbreviation, no problem.
And I suppose seeing Blofeld back in print may actually have been partially inspired by Eon's boldness.
Edited by Dustin, 25 December 2014 - 05:23 PM.