I suppose I could have started this in the Bond 24/SPECTRE thread but I get claustrophobic in crowded places. But upon hearing the (great) news of the new title, I was almost immediately reminded of the announcement 30 years ago that Kevin McClory planned to make a sequel to Never Say Never Again called Spectre.
Nothing came of it, of course. No Internet back then so there wasn't the rash of rumors, questions and wishful thinking. I want to say at the time I heard the news from the [American] James Bond Fan Club. Variety had a blurb about it in the Feb 29th issue. One thing seemed clear: Sean Connery wouldn't be in it.
But this was pretty standard practice back then. Variety provided a public arena for the Eon vs. McClory battles. They really began in the mid-1970s. McClory would make a press release about a new film. Eon would counter with an ad claiming to be the sole owners of the Bond characters for the cinema. Early press releases for McClory's Warhead included announcing Trevor Howard as M and (ironically) Orson Welles as Blofeld, along with Connery as Bond. This all of course eventually became Never Say Never Again. After that film was made, McClory kept stabbing at various avenues to make another film. In the 90s he thought about casting Dalton or Brosnan as Bond.
There's something about the announcement of this new film that really seems to finally lay to rest the bizarre role Kevin McClory played in the James Bond films. Eon now owns it all. They finally acquired Casino Royale, now they finally have Spectre all to themselves.
