Sony once planned to make a rival James Bond movie franchise - here's why those plans came to nothing. James Bond made his cinematic debut in 1962's Dr. No, with Sean Connery's Bond becoming instantly iconic. Connery's star power combined with the franchise's blend of action, glamor and gadgets made it the first real movie franchise, which has been running for 60 years and counting. Connery famously fell out of love with both the character and the producers behind the series and exited following 1967's You Only Live Twice (which changed a lot from the novel).
In the years that followed, actors like Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig - who ended his run with 2021's No Time To Die - have put that mark on the role. While James Bond movies can vary wildly in quality, from the superb The Spy Who Loved Me to the lambasted Die Another Day, the series has always been able to reinvent itself for a new generation. The EON-produced Bond movies are considered canon, though there are two other 007 adventures in existence; 1967 James Bond parody Casino Royale starring David Niven and Peter Sellers and 1983's Never Say Never Again.
Following the success of the James Bond movie series, there have been several high-profile lawsuits over the property. The most well-known involves the book Thunderball, which author Ian Fleming originally developed as a screenplay with the intent of making it the first Bond movie. He later adapted that script into a novel, leading to a lawsuit by writers Jack Whittingham and Kevin McClory, who developed the project with the author. The lawsuit was settled out of court, awarding McClory screenplay rights to Thunderball, its story and characters. This led to him co-producing the 1965 adaptation and later remaking it with Never Say Never Again. In the late 1990s, he struck a deal with Sony to remake Thunderball again, and combined with owning the rights to Casino Royale, Sony planned to launch their own rival James Bond movie franchise.
This Sony Bond had the working title Warhead 2000 AD, with Sean Connery reportedly being considered as the villain while Timothy Dalton (whose best Bond is License To Kill) and Liam Neeson were approached about playing 007. Of course, MGM was not happy with Sony's plan and launched a lawsuit. Sony fired back, stating that owning Casino Royale and Thunderball rights gave them the option to produce new Bond series. They also claimed that McClory helped establish the big screen Bond series, and was thus entitled to a share of royalties from EON's past productions, with the most recent entry at that stage being 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies.
This legal wrangling caused pre-production on Sony's Warhead 2000 AD to shut down, and a settlement between Sony and MGM was agreed in 1999. The former gave up any rights to make a James Bond movie and they traded MGM the rights to Casino Royale - which became one of Craig's best - for Spider-Man. In the aftermath, McClory was left to fight his royalty claim alone, which was thrown out, as it was decided he had waited too long to mount it. Sony's plan to produce a rival Bond franchise didn't work out, though they later tried to create a new spy saga with xXx. This 2002 action-adventure stated that James Bond was out of touch in the new millennium, though xXx lost the box-office race to Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan's final 007 outing.
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