When author and Cinema Retro contributor Robert Sellers wrote The Battle for Bond, a book about the complicated legal fights regarding the early days of the 007 franchise, he had no idea he would himself become embroiled in the courtroom quagmire that has gone on for decades. The book centers on a high profile court battle between Bond's creator Ian Fleming and his former collaboraters Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham over his use of story elements they had developed together. Fleming ended up using some of these aspects as the basis for his novel Thunderball. That novel was to be the first James Bond film, but the ensuing plagiarism suit against Fleming persuaded the producers to go with Dr. No as Bond's big screen debut vehicle. The court case took a high toll on Fleming's frail health and he ended up settling with his opponents. In the settlement, he had to acknowlege both men's contributions to the storyline of Thunderball in future editions of the book. McClory also received the screen rights to the novel and was one of the producers on the blockbuster 1965 screen version. He also executive produced the 1983 remake, Never Say Never Again.
In the process of researching his book, Robert Sellers received copies of the court documents from Kevin McClory, who died a short time later. He reproduced these in
The Battle for Bond. Now the Ian Fleming Will Trust, headed by the late author's niece, threatened to sue Sellers' publisher, London-based Tomahawk Press for copyright infringement. The author and publisher argue that court documents are in the public domain, but Tomahawk cannot afford to fight a costly court action. (Under UK law, the losing side in a legal case must also pay their opponent's costs as well.) Tomahawk has agreed to pulp the remaining 300 copies of the book. Remaining stocks in bookstores are not being recalled, though Amazon UK is removing the title. Sellers and Tomahawk have said they will reissue the book without the controversial photos of the legal documents. In the meantime, it's hard to fathom what the Fleming estate hoped to gain by these actions. They've taken a low-profile book and given it enormous exposure. (The Times of London has a full story about the situation in today's edition). Sellers was not uncovering a scandal: the courtroom case involving Fleming was major news at the time and has been extensively oovered in every biography of the author. For the sake of trashing 300 copies, they have insured that the book will now be highly-sought by readers who might otherwise would have never known it existed. It will also insure that the value of the first edition will skyrocket.
For the Times article click here
To read Robert Sellers response to the suit in an article for 007 Magazine, click here
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