James Bond Go Home

He lived through the Cold War, survived a zillion assassination attempts and seen his body metamorphose through five actor changes but the fight to establish James Bond's home base could prove the biggest battle yet. Sony Pictures Entertainment is currently fighting for the right to produce its own James Bond film, based on rights granted by the late 007 author, Ian Fleming. Sony reckons that because a British court ruled that Kevin McClory - co-writer and producer of the 1965 Bond film Thunderball - had the right to make Thunderball sequels, then he has the right to make other 007 films. McClory exercised the right in 1983 to produce a Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again, starring Connery, for Warner Bros and basically, Sony is saying that if McClory can use the characters for a remake of Thunderball, he can use them for another film. MGM and Danjaq (the production company once headed by late producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli) - producers of 18 out of 20 of the Bond movies - are unsurprisingly not happy about sharing the rights to their cash cow and are suing Sony for trademark infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets. They claim McClory had rights to remake Thunderball only and it was Danjaq that acquired the exclusive rights to the character after Fleming's death in 1964. Their complaint seeks $25 million. Sony is counter-suing. The courts have so far backed MGM with the federal appeals court in California recently upholding the injunction stopping Sony going into the Bond-making business. A trial to decide 007's fate once and for all, is scheduled for February.