The Bond filmmakers have reached an agreement with Kevin McClory's estate who owned the names to Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his evil organization.
- Nov 16, 2013
AceShowbiz - The doors are open for supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld to fight James Bond again in the big screen. After a dispute for many years, now producers have reached settlement with Kevin McClory's estate and ultimately broke the barriers that prevented the SPECTRE leader and his organization from appearing in the recent Bond films.
Blofeld was born in a screenplay hatched by Ian Fleming and McClory. The feud happened after the former allegedly used the story in his novel "Thunderball" without crediting the latter.
The feuding parties issue a joint statement to announce the settlement, "Danjaq, LLC, the producer of the James Bond films, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the longtime distributor of the Bond films, along with the estate and family of the late Kevin McClory, announced today that Danjaq and MGM have acquired all of the estate's and family's rights and interests relating to James Bond, thus bringing to an amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years."
The next Bond movie is due November 6, 2015. Daniel Craig (the 007 agent), Ralph Fiennes (M), Naomie Harris (Eve Moneypenny), and Ben Whishaw (Q) are expected to reprise their respective roles in "Bond 24". Sam Mendes is also back to his post as a director.
