Bond fans rejoice, James Bond's greatest nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld is now coming back to the EON family.
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the news that Danjaq LLC, the producers of the Bond series and MGM have come to a legal agreement with Kevin McClory's family estate, the owners of the rights of Blofeld and his SPECTRE organization.
To understand the significance of the deal a quick history is in order. In 1958 Bond creator Ian Fleming attempted to adapt his character he attempt to write an original screenplay with Irish writer/director Kevin McClory and later with Jack Whittingham. But when the deal fell through Fleming adopted the ideas into a novel, Thunderball. When Thuderball was going to be adapted McClory and Whittingham sued, winning damages, earning producer credits and limiting the time that EON could use Blofeld and SPECTRE.
The deal also allowed McClory the right to make his own adaptation of Thunderball, leading to the 1983 movie Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery. McClory even attempted a second adaptation in the 90s called Warhead 2000, but prevent due to legal wrangling with MGM.
Even after McClory's death in 2006 his family still continued the fight, but now reached a legal settlement. There is no word on the financial cost of the settlement.
There is no word yet on whether Blofeld appear in Bond 24 or if he will be saved for a later film. As a Bond fan this is exciting news as we get the prospect of Daniel Craig's getting to face Bond's most iconic enemy and it would be interesting to see how he would fit into the reboot universe. Personally I would drop SPECTRE and keep the Quantum organization and make them a more subtle organization.
Bond 24 is set to theaters on October 23, 2015 in the UK and November 6 in the US.
