2 Bonds? Sony Says ‘Never Say Never’

The name is Bond, James Bond.

But now there’s more than one, and the companies behind virtually all of the movies featuring the debonair British secret agent are shaken and stirred enough to threaten a lawsuit.

The dispute started Monday when Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Columbia Pictures unit said it reached a deal “to make a series of new James Bond feature films.” Sony said it would do so by licensing rights from Kevin McClory, who produced “Thunderball” in 1965 and a remake of that film, “Never Say Never Again,” in 1983.

Unclear is whether Sony and McClory control enough rights beyond the “Thunderball” story to create the kind of franchise that Sony envisions.

Nearly all film rights to James Bond over the last three decades had been controlled by the late producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and, currently, by Broccoli’s heirs, along with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s United Artists unit.

Sony said the movie will be based on original works created by McClory, the late James Bond author Ian Fleming and screenwriter Jack Whittingham. The three collaborated on a screenplay in the early 1960s that Fleming eventually turned into the novel “Thunderball.”

Sony’s announcement brought an unusually harsh response from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Chairman Frank Mancuso, whose United Artists unit will release its 18th Bond film, “Tomorrow Never Dies,” in December.

Mancuso said McClory’s ownership of James Bond rights has “been disputed for over 10 years. Any claim that he can create a James Bond franchise is delusional.”

Mancuso also took a shot at Sony, saying that hopes “that Sony has not been duped by Mr. McClory’s deception.” In a not-so-thinly veiled legal threat, Mancuso added that MGM will “vigorously pursue all means to protect this valued franchise that United Artists and the Broccoli family have nurtured for more than three decades.”

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Ironically, the deal was made by Sony Pictures President John Calley, who, while working for Mancuso as head of United Artists, revived the Bond series in 1995 after a six-year hiatus. “GoldenEye,” starring Pierce Brosnan in his first Bond role, grossed $350 million at the box office, about 75% of that from outside the U.S. Calley left UA last fall when Sony recruited him to run its movie unit.

“I think we can put through a number of very exciting Bond movies,” Calley said in an interview. “We feel the rights we acquired will support those ambitions.”

Reacting to MGM’s statement, Gareth Wigan, co-vice chairman of Sony’s Columbia-TriStar Motion Picture Group, said, “Our lawyers have looked into this very carefully, as I’m sure MGM’s lawyers have. It’s not the first time two sets of lawyers have come to different conclusions. Obviously, we would not be saying we intended to make a number of films based on these rights if we didn’t think we could.”

McClory called Mancuso’s statement “a knee-jerk reaction that doesn’t say much. They know we have the right to make films using the character Bond.”

At stake is the longest-running, and clearly one of the most profitable, film franchises in Hollywood history, one that has grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. It’s long been a given among movie executives that Bond films are virtually loss-proof, and the international appeal of the franchise makes them especially valuable given the exploding foreign movie market over the last decade.

In a 1963 settlement, McClory, whose work on the “Thunderball” story wasn’t credited initially, won the right to be listed as a producer on the film version as well as the right to make a remake, which he did in 1983 with “Never Say Never Again” for Warner Bros. Calley, a former Warner executive, was a consultant on that film, helping to talk Sean Connery into reprising his role as Bond for the film.

That film, along with “Casino Royale,” a Woody Allen spoof of the Bond genre, are the only ones involving other studios.