McClory as director and use of characters in early Bond films[]
According to the recently published Nobody Does it Better oral history of the Bond films, McClory was actually going to direct, not just produce, the unmade 1950s film. Related to the lawsuit, did he make any issue over the fact that the Dr. No and From Russia with Love films made use of SPECTRE and Blofeld from the Thunderball novel, during the period when presumably the court case was underway? The lack of reference to either in Goldfinger might have been a consequence. Obviously, EON must have gotten the OK to continue using both as they were featured in the next 3 Bond films (though clearly the producers of the 1967 Casino Royale weren't able to and had to revert to Fleming's original SMERSH, though Woody Allen's character clearly was meant to be a spoof of Blofeld). 23skidoo (talk) 15:30, 19 January 2021 (UTC)