The source material to Thunderball has long been a subject of debate and controversy within James Bond fandom. The original novel Thunderball, written by Ian Fleming, was based on a screenplay that was created with the intention of being turned into a film; a number of screenwriters and producers were attached to help flesh out a story, although nothing came of this and Fleming novelised it for the ninth book in his series.

Consequently, Fleming was sued for plagarism, for which he settled out of court in 1963. EON producer’s Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made a deal in 1964 to film an adaptation of the novel. Like a good number of James Bond films, it was promoted as Ian Fleming’s Thunderball; however, the screenplay is officially credited to Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, but was written as being ‘based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham’, and also was credited as being ‘based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming.

See also:

• The Battle for Bond