43 replies to this topic

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Blofeld's Cat
Irrespective of who owns the Blofeld character the main thing is that it doesn't stop Eon from making Bond movies.

That's the main thing.

We can all live without Baldy by now. We've done so for, at the very least, 22 years.

Well said BC

[kevrichardson]

Originally posted by Blofeld's Cat
Irrespective of who owns the Blofeld character the main thing is that it doesn't stop Eon from making Bond movies.
That's the main thing.
We can all live without Baldy by now. We've done so for, at the very least, 22 years.

Still it would be nice to at least use SPECTRE in some form . Since it was created by Ian Fleming .

[kevrichardson]

The confussing part about all of this. Is that ownership of Blofeld /SPECTRE did not stop John Gardner from writing 3 Bond /SPECTRE novels .

[kevrichardson]

Here is a question . If Kevin McClory dies ! Does Blofeld /SPECTRE returns?

[DLibrasnow]

No...the rights will pass to McClory's heirs.

You are missing the point I made in my previous post kev

The High Court in the early1960s ruled that the literary rights to "Thunderball" went to Ian Fleming and the cinematic rights went to McClory!! John Gardner was able to use SPECTRE because the medium he was using was literary and not cinematic.

Another thing on the Blofeld subject. If EON did use the character a large portion of the general audience would think EON was ripping off Austin Powers. This happened about two years ago when I was watching "You Only Live Twice" on TV. My girlfriend happened to wander through the room during a scene in which Blofeld is featured and she asked me:

"What is the movie that's ripping off Dr. Evil?"

[kevrichardson]

Seriously DiLibranow how could your girlfriend misunderstand Blofeld and Dr.Evil ? Any how the whole Blofeld /SPECTRE , Kevin McClory issue is really confusssing . From what i read the whole issue was settle once SONY stop it pre-production of a James Bond film series based on "TB" . This give SONY the rights to Spider Man and EON got Casino Royale . Plus Blofeld . Personally i love the whole idea of Blofeld . But like anything it or his time is over .

[TheSaint]

I wonder what it would take for McClory to sell his rights to Eon and be done with it? He's never going to make another Bond movie. Also, if he does have heirs(does anyone know if he does or not?), the fee for the rights would be a nice nest egg for them.

[Mister Asterix]

There is to much bad blood. McClory will never sell, and Danjaq and MGM would never give him a dime. (Okay, maybe they’d give him a teeny three million or so, but that’s nothing compared to what McClory wants.)

As far as hiers, my bet is that the bitter, old man has it in his will that his heirs cannot sell to MGM or Danjaq.

[LadySylvia]

The rights to the Blofeld character and the SPECTRE organization now belong to the heirs of the late Kevin McClory. They can never do another version of THUNDERBALL, because the story features the character of James Bond and only EON Productions have the right to use Bond in a movie. But EON Productions cannot use the Blofeld character or SPECTRE.

[Mister Asterix]

The rights to the Blofeld character and the SPECTRE organization now belong to the heirs of the late Kevin McClory. They can never do another version of THUNDERBALL, because the story features the character of James Bond and only EON Productions have the right to use Bond in a movie. But EON Productions cannot use the Blofeld character or SPECTRE.

[mra]I don

[Royal Dalton]

I believe the McCloty estate can still do another version of Thunderball so long as it is all outside the United States. At least this seems to be what Kevin McClory believed before he died as he was still trying to work movie deal after the famous Sony v. MGM lawsuit.

Yeah, that's about the size of it.

[triviachamp]

[quote name='Mister Asterix' post='733737' date='30 April 2007 - 17:09'][mra]I don

[TheREAL008]

As far as I'm concerned:

Ian thought up the characters.

McClory thought up the plot.

End of story. If I were Kevin I simply would have just said to Eon and Fleming: "You know what? I don't want a legal battle so I hand over my rights to the Thunderball story. I'm just glad I could contribute to Mr. Fleming's smash creation but please make sure to give credit to where it's due."

Really, Kevin McClory could only write just one story and continually rehash it while Eon can take the characters, since they own the film rights, and creat endless plots for Blofield.

[zencat]

The confussing part about all of this. Is that ownership of Blofeld /SPECTRE did not stop John Gardner from writing 3 Bond /SPECTRE novels .

I believe in the original court case McClory was awarded credit on the novel Thunderball and film rights to that story. He did not win any literary rights to SPECTRE or the Blofeld character. After all, Fleming continued to use Blolfed in subsequent books without issue.