Bond Battle Over
After some 40 tedious years of litigation, which saw McClory, a producer and coscreenwriter of Thunderball, attempt to claim a piece of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's $1 billion James Bond franchise, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie ruled Friday in favor of the studio.
Rafeedie said McClory waited way too long in bringing to court his suit, which alleged he cocreated the suave spy with novelist Ian Fleming.
Briefly outlining the 40-year history of this Bond litigation, the judge pointed out that there have been at least three major lawsuits involving McClory and the Bond rights, but that it was not until 1997 that McClory alleged he was the co-owner of the Bond character.
An MGM attorney said the ruling was "a total vindication" for the studio. "Today's ruling closes the book on the dispute surrounding the James Bond films," MGM said in a statement.
"Sony's settlement agreement last year, and the judge's decision today...reaffirm, once and for all, our position that MGM and Danjaq (the Bond production company)...are the true home of the James Bond movies."
Back in 1997, Sony said it had purchased McClory's Bond rights and was going to use them to launch a competing Bond franchise. MGM sued, winning last March with a settlement that put a stop to Sony's Bond days. But McClory still insisted he was cocreator and continued his part of the suit, which the judge just dismissed.
McClory worked with Fleming on 10 Thunderball scripts in 1960. United Artists released Thunderball in 1965. Eighteen years later, McClory used his Thunderball claim to remake the film at Warner Bros. as Never Say Never Again. (MGM later acquired rights to that movie.)
MGM had been offering McClory settlement offers, all of which he refused.
No comment from McClory's lawyers.
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