MGM, which has produced Bond films since 1962, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Sony on Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

The stakes are significant for MGM, which is trying to revive its fortunes after foundering during the 1980s and early 1990s. Bond is not only a key to MGM's future, it's Hollywood's most successful movie franchise. Since MGM launched the series in 1962 with "Dr. No,'' its 18 Bond movies have earned more than $2.5 billion in box office receipts worldwide.

MGM sued Sony last November when Sony announced its intention to develop a Bond film. MGM is now asking for a preliminary injunction because it believes Sony actually has begun making the movie.

"We understand that Sony may be commencing their process a little faster than we thought,'' said MGM attorney David Johnson. "We don't want them in the process of making movies while the suit is in litigation.''

Sony attorney Lou Meisinger declined to say whether work is under way on a Bond film. The question would be answered in the studio's response to the MGM motion, he said.

"The motion is remarkable only for its volume, not its merit,'' he said of the 35-page filing.

MGM itself is currently developing a 19th Bond installment. A script is being written for the film, which will star Pierce Brosnan, and a director will be named soon, said MGM spokesman Craig Parsons.

The dispute hinges on the rights controlled by Kevin McClory, a writer and producer who produced the Bond films "Thunderball'' in 1965 and "Never Say Never Again'' in 1983. McClory said he had a relationship with late Bond novelist Ian Fleming that predated MGM's deal.

MGM contends in its motion filed Tuesday that McClory's rights to Fleming's material and characters were restricted by the 1963 settlement of a breach-of-copyright lawsuit McClory filed against Fleming over "Thunderball.''

In its lawsuit, MGM also accused John Calley, a former MGM executive who is now president of Sony Pictures, of taking MGM trade secrets when he left the company. The suit alleges that Sony is using the information in its development of its Bond film.

MGM Takes Bond Action-April 15, 1998

Likening the defendant to Rip Van Winkle, Metro-Goldywn-Mayer has moved to dismiss Sony Pictures Entertainmentís counterclaim seeking profits from 34 years of James Bond films on the ground the claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

MGM's motion, filed late Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, argues that rights holder Kevin McClory never pursued a claim for profits from MGM and Bond producer Danjaq during the years when the studio released Bond movies ranging from From Russia With Love in 1963 to Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

Only after MGM sued Sony, the motion states, did McClory awake from his long slumber and make the astonishing assertion that he was entitled to millions of dollars for a claim which could have been brought as early as 1962.

We received their motion and we will be opposing it. We don't think it has merit, said Ron Reynolds of Troop, Meisinger, Steuber and Pasich, which represents Sony and the other defendants.

The basis of MGM's motion is that Sony's counterclaim is barred by the three-year statute of limitations in the Copyright Act. Although on close inspection Sony's counterclaim asks for profits for at least to the extent accrued within the applicable limitations period as determined by the Court, MGM cites cases for the proposition that a claim for profits is totally barred including a claim that Sony is entitled to profits only for the last three years.

The Bond litigation began last fall when Sony announced it would make a series of new James Bond feature films with McClory, a man now in his 70s who has been described as a collaborator with James Bond's creator, British author Ian Fleming, on what ultimately became the script for Thunderball

Sony bought McClory's rights, which typically have been viewed as the film rights to Thunderball, but Sony clearly has a far more expansive interpretation of the McClory rights.

MGM responded to Sony's announcement with a lawsuit on Nov. 17 seeking a declaratory judgment that no one but MGM has the right to produce or distribute any Bond motion pictures. Sony came back in February with an answer and counterclaim asserting that McClory is the joint owner of the cinematic Bond character.

Based on the assertion of joint ownership, in the third of its nine counterclaims, Sony sought an accounting for some portion of the profits from the over $2.75 billion in worldwide theatrical box office receipts MGM has amassed from the Bond franchise.

Sony Drops Bond Bomb-Feb 20, 1998

Sony Pictures, in its high-stakes attempt to kidnap British superspy James Bond from his 35-year-old home at MGMÌs United Artists, has come forth with startling claims of ownership of the 007 movie franchise and is suing MGM for a cut of the profits generated from the 18-film action series.

Legal documents recently filed in U.S. district court by Sony and its attorneys outline a strategy based on complex international copyright laws to buttress their right to go forward with their nascent Bond movie franchise.

SPE is claiming it has the legal right to the 007 franchise through its association with producer Kevin McClory, whose co-ownership of the Bond character stems from collaborations with Bond author Ian Fleming.

Sony suggests in its claim that the cinematic Bond character is not only separate from the literary secret agent, but is in fact partly McClory's creation, and therefore co-owned by him.

And because of his ownership of the Bond character, Sony said, McClory is owed some portion of the estimated $3 billion the franchise has generated.

According to the documents, Fleming worked with McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham through 1959 and 1960, developing 10 treatments and scripts that weren't based on any of the existing Bond novels. The joint script efforts, ultimately titled Thunderball, were intended to become the original James Bond film.

Though those scripts and treatments did not result in the production of a film, Sony said, Fleming later wrote a novel based on them, also titled Thunderball, without giving McClory credit or payment from the book. McClory successfully sued Fleming, and in 1963 was awarded various rights, including the ability to reproduce any part of the Thunderball novel in films, and to use the Bond character.

As a consequence of his joint authorship, McClory has at all times been at least a co-owner of copyright in and to the McClory scripts and all their elements, including the James Bond character as delineated therein, according to the Sony counter-claims. Consequently, McClory (and now SPE) may freely exploit the McClory scripts.

Though a Bond pic called Thunderball was produced in 1965, Pierce O'Donnell, lead attorney for MGM and Bond pic pro-duction company Danjaq, disputed Sony's attempt to use that film as the source of McClory's ownership.

The cinematic James Bond was fully delineated by the time Thunderball was made, said O'Donnell, citing the already-released UA pics. Instead of meeting us on the merits of our claim, they've concocted this bizarre claim that a man who spent a few months working on an unsuccessful Thunderball script with the man who created James Bond can somehow become the owner of the cinematic James Bond.

O'Donnell also questioned the timeliness of the suit.

This novel claim is being asserted for the first time in 35 years, after UA has made 18 Bond movies, said O'Donnell. It is preposterous as a matter of fact and of law.

MGM and Danjaq released a brief response to the new Sony claims of ownership. The defendant's response confirms our strongly held belief that Sony was delusional in asserting that it can launch a new series of James Bond films, an official MGM statement said. Expanding radically upon Kevin McCloryÌs time-worn assertion of his rights to make James Bond movies based on Thunderball, Sony now makes completely unfounded new claims.

Sony Strikes Back In Legal Battle Over James Bond-Feb 20, 1998

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In a legal battle that grows more bitter at each turn, Sony Pictures Entertainment has countersued rival film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. over the movie rights to fictional spy James Bond.

Since October, when Sony signed a deal with former Bond producer Kevin McClory to make movies featuring the British secret agent 007, MGM has asserted it owns exclusive rights to the Bond franchise. MGM in November sued to block Sony from making Bond movies. Sony Pictures is the movie studio wing of Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.

At stake are billions of dollars in box office success. Over 35 years, some 20 Bond movies have grossed more than $3 billion in theater ticket sales.

The most recent Bond picture, "Tomorrow Never Dies," opened in theaters in December and has grossed about $120 million in the United States. It is expected to eclipse that figure overseas.

McClory, along with Jack Whittingham, helped Bond creator Ian Fleming develop the original story line for 1965's "Thunderball." By virtue of his involvement, McClory now owns rights to "Thunderball" and the characters within it.

What is in dispute is McClory's rights to make movies beyond merely a remake of "Thunderball," which he has already done once with 1983's "Never Say Never Again."

In court documents from the recent countersuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Sony claims that Bond and the Bond movies are all based on the sort of action originally written in the story line for "Thunderball." Because of that, they say McClory is the co-author of the cinematic Bond.

Sony further claims that MGM and Danjaq LLC, the producers of 18 Bond pictures, owe McClory fees for all the Bond movies they have produced because he is the co-author of the cinematic Bond. And they want a full accounting of the profits and losses of those movies.

MGM attorney, Pierce O'Donnell called Sony's assertions "preposterous" and likened McClory to the "Rip Van Winkle of copyright laws. He has been sleeping on his putative rights for over 20 years."

Sony officials declined to comment on the record.

O'Donnell said the suit and countersuit likely would not come to trial for a year.

The two movie studios are likely to continue waging their legal battle in the meantime, and MGM is already at work on a script for its next James Bond movie.

Sean Connery still won't ever say never

Could Sean Connery be looking to step back into the expensive designer shoes of James Bond? People magazine's Jeffrey Wells reports that the sixty-seven-year-old star has been tapped to reprise the role of the suave secret agent he made famous more than thirty-five years ago. But don't look for him to take over for Pierce Brosnan, whose latest Bond pic, M-G-M's Tomorrow Never Dies, has already passed the $200 million mark at the international box office. Instead, Connery's license to kill would be renewed by Columbia Pictures, which is involved in a bitter battle with M-G-M to make its own Bond film based on the Ian Fleming novel Thunderball. Connery, who starred as Bond in the original Thunderball film in 1965, more or less remade the film in 1983 when he starred in the non-M-G-M Never Say Never Again.

According to People, there's a chance that director Dean Devlin and producer Roland Emmerich, the duo who brought the world Independence Day and will soon unleash Godzilla, will produce the "third Thunderball." Sony has said that it hopes to have the film out as early as 1999, but the expected drawn-out court battle with M-G-M could mean major delays. No word from Connery's camp, although a "well-connected agent" tells the mag that Connery's return as 007 is "real . . . it's happening."

A Pending Lawsuit

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Two Hollywood studios are at war over the lucrative James Bond movie franchise.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Monday filed a $25 million lawsuit in federal court against Sony Pictures, charging that Sony's efforts to mount a rival Bond film are due to "a disgruntled former executive of (MGM's) United Artists Pictures."

The suit also names that executive, John Calley, the former UA president who is now Sony's motion picture head.

"This case is about the specious efforts of a global media empire and a disgruntled former executive of United Artists Pictures Inc. to lay claim to the most successful and enduring motion picture franchise in history," MGM's lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Joining MGM in the suit to stop Sony's 007 production plans is Danjaq Ltd., the company originally formed by late producer Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1962 to produce Bond films. Eon, the successor company to Danjaq, is run by Broccoli's daughter Barbara and stepson Michael Wilson, and is now partnered with MGM.

The suit charges Sony with attempting to abscond with Bond character and film property rights representing three decades of creative and financial investment by Danjaq and MGM.

"They've created a cloud over our 34-year-old James Bond franchise," said attorney Pierce O'Donnell, of the firm O'Donnell & Shaeffer, which MGM has hired to spearhead its legal battles with Sony.

MGM's initial goal is to halt Sony's Bond production efforts, O'Donnell said. "Assessment of financial damages comes next. If in the process we find that we've been damaged, we're going to take them to a jury trial," he said.

The suit also names Kevin McClory, an early collaborator on a film project with Bond author Ian Fleming, who has maintained rights to Fleming's novel "Thunderball" and who produced two Bond pictures based on the book.

Neither Sony nor Calley commented on the suit. McClory was also unavailable for comment.

O'Donnell told Daily Variety that the $25 million in damages are charged in connection with MGM's recent initial public stock offering.

"They calculated the timing to inflict maximum injury to MGM," said O'Donnell.

He stopped short of saying that Sony's Oct. 13 announcement of its rival Bond project did in fact cause the IPO's less-than-robust acceptance on Wall Street last week, but did not rule it out.

"We are studying that," he said. "We may decide it's more than $25 million," O'Donnell said.

The value of promotional tie-ins and other marketing deals connected with the Bond property could be compromised by Sony's moves, according to MGM's legal team, which added that marketing partners have already committed more than $100 million to the campaign for the upcoming "Tomorrow Never Dies," said MGM senior executive VP and general counsel David Johnson.

The MGM suit attacks McClory's -- and Sony's -- claims of ownership of Bond properties stemming from the Fleming novel "Thunderball," which McClory produced for the screen in 1965, and remade in 1983 under the title "Never Say Never Again." Both starred Sean Connery.

"Although Fleming granted McClory his interest in the copyright in certain preliminary script materials, Fleming did not, and could not, grant McClory the right to use the character James Bond and his pseudonym '007' in non-'Thunderball' films," according to MGM's suit.

MGM also claims that a 28-year U.S. copyright term on Fleming's work had expired and that a renewal of those rights Oct. 30 brought all of Fleming's U.S. copyrights -- including Thunderball-- under the MGM/Danjaq banner.

"They are out of the James Bond business," said O'Donnell of Sony and McClory. "I don't think they can make a martini that's shaken, not stirred."

But MGM is leveling its most personal charges -- theft of trade secrets -- against Calley, who as former UA production president was intimately involved in the reinvigoration of the Bond franchise with the successful 1995 film "Goldeneye."

"During his tenure at United Artists Pictures, Calley acquired highly valuable proprietary information about the optimal ways to develop and exploit the franchise and bring it into the 21st Century," MGM said in its complaint.

Sony and Columbia induced Calley, the suit alleges, "to misappropriate this highly confidential information, which they are now using to, and intend to continue to use, to compete unfairly with the James Bond motion picture franchise which Danjaq and MGM have carefully developed and nurtured through decades by their own skill and effort."

Sony's official press announcement--October 13, 1997

Warhead 2000 AD Mock Poster Created in 1997

A protege of legendary filmmaker John Huston, Irishman McClory worked for Huston on AFRICAN QUEEN, MOULIN ROUGE, BEAT THE DEVIL and MOBY DICK. McClory was Michael Todd's assistant and was a director on Todd's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, which garnered six Academy Awards including Best Picture for 1956.

The first new Bond film, to be produced by McClory, is expected to be released in 1999. McClory produced the James Bond films THUNDERBALL in 1965 and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN in 1983 and was co-author of the original story on which these films were based.

"I had several choices of studios with whom to work," says McClory, "but Sony Pictures and Columbia stood head and shoulders above the other studios in experience, unique production facilities, digital special effects and global distribution abilities. Plus, this is a great opportunity to join old friends John Calley, Gareth Wigan (co-vice chair, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) and Amy Pascal (president, Columbia Pictures) in propelling James Bond into the 21st century."

Sony Pictures Entertainment President and Chief Operating Officer John Calley said, "The new James Bond films emphasize our commitment to create motion picture franchises that serve as tentpoles for our release schedule and create business opportunities throughout the Sony family. We are especially grateful to Gareth Wigan for his perseverance in creating this opportunity."

Over the past few years, SPE has developed such emerging franchise films as BAD BOYS, JUMANJI and MEN IN BLACK and is building on that momentum with upcoming features such as STARSHIP TROOPERS, MASK OF ZORRO, GODZILLA and CHARLIE'S ANGELS.

Gareth Wigan said, "We have known Kevin for some time and are pleased to join with him in giving James Bond a new home at Sony Pictures."

Sony Pictures' global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home video acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities, development of new entertainment products, services and technologies and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.spe.sony.com

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