Claire Tole-Moir
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The Jack Whittingham Collection Part II
The following four lots are offered by the daughter of acclaimed British playwright and screenwriter Jack Whittingham. Featuring documents, screenplays and treatments surrounding the production of a proposed first James Bond film. Ian Fleming in collaboration with producer and director Kevin McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham intended to produce a new Bond story that they would transfer onto the big screen.
The venture for this original production began in 1958, and predates the first released James Bond film 'Dr. No' by four years. Fleming agreed with McClory that he would compose a new James Bond story, in the form of treatments that Jack Whittingham would work from to transform into a script for film. Whittingham worked very closely with Fleming taking his initial plot outline, which was originally titled 'James Bond and the Secret Service' into a fit for filming story 'Longitude 78 West'. This title was later changed again by Fleming and registered by McClory in 1960 as 'Thunderball'. Whittingham not only reworked and elaborated the plot, he was also instrumental to the characterisation of James Bond, making him a more endearing character for the audience to resonate with.
Due to disagreements between Fleming and McClory this production was later shelved. Nevertheless, in March 1961 Ian Fleming published his eighth James Bond novel 'Thunderball', bearing no credit acknowledgement to Whittingham or McClory in the published Jonathan Cape edition. This created a bitter plagiarism law battle at the High Court. The majority of the documents included in this collection are copy paperwork which was submitted during the court proceedings between Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming. The out of court ruling stipulated that future publications of the book must be credited to 'Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming' in that order and awarded the film writes for any future production to McClory. When 'Thunderball' was finally made, in 1965, under Executive Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Kevin McClory was given the role as the film's Producer.
The following four lots are offered by the daughter of acclaimed British playwright and screenwriter Jack Whittingham. Featuring documents, screenplays and treatments surrounding the production of a proposed first James Bond film. Ian Fleming in collaboration with producer and director Kevin McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham intended to produce a new Bond story that they would transfer onto the big screen.
The venture for this original production began in 1958, and predates the first released James Bond film 'Dr. No' by four years. Fleming agreed with McClory that he would compose a new James Bond story, in the form of treatments that Jack Whittingham would work from to transform into a script for film. Whittingham worked very closely with Fleming taking his initial plot outline, which was originally titled 'James Bond and the Secret Service' into a fit for filming story 'Longitude 78 West'. This title was later changed again by Fleming and registered by McClory in 1960 as 'Thunderball'. Whittingham not only reworked and elaborated the plot, he was also instrumental to the characterisation of James Bond, making him a more endearing character for the audience to resonate with.
Due to disagreements between Fleming and McClory this production was later shelved. Nevertheless, in March 1961 Ian Fleming published his eighth James Bond novel 'Thunderball', bearing no credit acknowledgement to Whittingham or McClory in the published Jonathan Cape edition. This created a bitter plagiarism law battle at the High Court. The majority of the documents included in this collection are copy paperwork which was submitted during the court proceedings between Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming. The out of court ruling stipulated that future publications of the book must be credited to 'Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming' in that order and awarded the film writes for any future production to McClory. When 'Thunderball' was finally made, in 1965, under Executive Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Kevin McClory was given the role as the film's Producer.
Lot 27
Jack Whittingham / James Bond: A copy first draft shooting script 'Longitude 78 West' the original film title for Thunderball, circa December - February, 1960,
12 June 2019, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£4,000 - £5,000
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Jack Whittingham / James Bond: A copy first draft shooting script 'Longitude 78 West' the original film title for Thunderball,
circa December - February, 1960,
the copy with title page having numerous annotations the title 'Bond In The Bahamas' in mimeographed typescript seen crossed out with hand annotation James Bond above, below the working title 'Longitude 78 West', First Draft Shooting Script, by Jack Whittingham, based on a Story by Ian Fleming, additional annotations Kevin McClory, Xanadu Productions, Dec 21st - Feb 15th, 142 pages of copied mimeographed typescript, featuring numerous annotations throughout in Jack Whittingham and Kevin McClory's hand: with court reference folder,
the copy with title page having numerous annotations the title 'Bond In The Bahamas' in mimeographed typescript seen crossed out with hand annotation James Bond above, below the working title 'Longitude 78 West', First Draft Shooting Script, by Jack Whittingham, based on a Story by Ian Fleming, additional annotations Kevin McClory, Xanadu Productions, Dec 21st - Feb 15th, 142 pages of copied mimeographed typescript, featuring numerous annotations throughout in Jack Whittingham and Kevin McClory's hand: with court reference folder,
Footnotes
As part of the writing and planning process for the first James Bond draft film script, Jack Whittingham and Kevin McClory conducted an in-depth location visit to the Bahamas. There they scoured the island to find the perfect places to shoot the film. This important trip found locations for many of the drafted scenes, most importantly the underwater bomb scene and the epic underwater battle scene so associated with the released book and later film 'Thunderball'. Whittingham said of the visit ...through reconnaissance of the Bahamas from a writer point of view has been invaluable. One takes mental photographs and learns geography instead of having to try and imagine it all. With detailed notes and a better understanding of the of the country and countryside this enabled him to write a complete first script for the film.