Never Say Never Again - Definition and Overview

Never Say Never Again is a 1983 remake of the 1965 film Thunderball, with Sean Connery reprising his role as secret agent James Bond. The film is not considered canon or a part of the "official" Bond film series from EON Productions and United Artists. Never Say Never Again was originally released by Warner Bros..

Never Say Never Again also marks the highpoint of a long legal battle between United Artists and Kevin McClory. For more information see: the controversy over Thunderball.

Cast & characters

• James Bond - Sean Connery
• M - Edward Fox
• Q - Alec McCowen
• Miss Moneypenny - Pamela Salem
• Emilio Largo - Klaus Maria Brandauer
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Max von Sydow
• Felix Leiter - Bernie Casey
• Domino Petachi - Kim Basinger
• Nigel Small-Fawcett - Rowan Atkinson
• Fatima - Barbara Carrera

Crew

• Directed by: Irvin Kershner
• Written by: Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming, Jack Whittingham
• Screenplay by: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
• Produced by: Kevin McClory, Michael Dryhurst, Jack Schwartzman
• Composed by: Michel Legrand

Trivia

• The animal rights disclaimer saying "no animal was harmed or mistreated during the production of this film" which appears in many movies, was instituted as the result of a scene in Never Say Never Again that showed a horse jumping off a cliff.
• The Flying Saucer, Largo's ship, is a translation of "The Disco Volante", the name of Largo's ship in Thunderball.
• The casino where Bond and Largo go head to head in a videogame was called Casino Royale.
  • This scene also prevented author John Gardner from having a somewhat similar scene involving Bond playing a computer game over a LAN in Gardner's novel Role of Honour. Bond was supposed to be playing a simulation of "The Battle of Waterloo", this was later changed to a different type of game involving "Bunker Hill". Interestingly, the Battle of Waterloo would also play a part in the later official Bond film, The Living Daylights.
• Originally, both this film and the official Bond film, Octopussy were to be released to theatres simultaneously, which led to a brief flurry of media activity regarding the "Battle of the Bonds." Ultimately, it was decided to separate the two release dates.
• McClory originally planned for the film to open with some version of the famous "gunbarrel" opening as seen in the official Bond series, but ultimately the film opens with a screenful of "007" symbols instead. When the soundtrack for the film was released on CD, it included a piece of music composed for the proposed opening.

External links

• Never Say Never Again (1983) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086006/) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM's page on the movie (http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=NEVERSYN)

"Never Say Never Again" is also a song by the Bee Gees. It featured on their 1960s album, Odessa