Is history repeating itself? Once upon a time Sean Connery left the James Bond franchise, saying he would never again play the role. Roger Moore was brought in for an increasingly campy series of films, but 12 years later Connery was back as Bond in Never Say Never Again. Only it wasn’t part of the official franchise; it was a remake of fourth Bond film Thunderball, which courts had ruled belonged to producer and co-writer Kevin McClory (read this Wikipedia article for the complete confusing rundown).
Now it seems that McClory is ready to pull that trick again – once more he’ll remake Thunderball, this time with Pierce Brosnan starring as Bond. At least that’s what he hopes – apparently an offer has been made, but there’s been no official word yet. This isn’t the first time McClory has thought about remaking his Thunderball remake – he was looking into doing it in the 90s, with Timothy Dalton as Bond. Would Brosnan come back? Rumor is that he is very unhappy with the way he was shunted off the franchise, so he could do it to make a point… and some dough.
In an interesting sidenote, Thunderball introduces SPECTRE and Blofeld, who is Bond’s signature villain. With the confusion over who owns what when it comes to this property, that character remains essentially up in the air.