If I don't consider Roger Moore part of my personal canon, am I a fake fan?

This movie was basically made because of remake rights owned by Kevin McClory relating to Thunderball (1965). According to the 20-26/10/1997 edition of the trade paper Variety, characters and situations which McClory claimed he owned included: SPECTRE and its octopus signia; characters Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Domino Smith, Fatima Blush and Fiona Volpe; James Bond up against the hijack of an A-bomb; James Bond fighting Sicilian Mafia; the Shrublands Health Clinic; Bahamas location; a yacht with a hidden hydrofoil and the rocket-firing motorbike. EON Productions owned the James Bond theme and logo plus a considerable number of characters and situations. Elements that were shared by both parties included James Bond, casino gambling, M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, Felix Leiter and the Aston Martin DB5. Interestingly of the latter, this vehicle did not appear in this movie whereas it did in Thunderball (1965). Further, despite the claims, the Bahamas was still a location in Casino Royale (2006).

Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham collaborated on an original story and screenplay for what would have been the very first 007 film, entitled "James Bond, Secret Agent". McClory reportedly wanted Richard Burton to play James Bond. For whatever reasons, the movie was never made. Fleming had previously cannibalized plots prepared for two other abandoned Bond spin-off projects, a newspaper comic strip and a television series, for 007 novels, and similarly turned this one into his novel "Thunderball". However, in this case his right to do so was not so clear. When Harry Saltzman bought the film rights to the Bond novels from Fleming and went into partnership with Albert R. Broccoli, McClory initiated legal action. Although Thunderball (1965) was a fairly faithful adaptation of the published novel, McClory's suit resulted in only the earlier screenplay being credited as source material. McClory's producer credit on that movie is possibly just another term of the settlement. The case was settled out of court.

Never Say Never Again is a bad remake of Thunderball, with an obviously too-old-for-the-part Connery wearing what has got to be the worst hairpiece in the history of cinema. This movie was made because of a lawsuit.

And now McClory's dead, so we won't see another one, although there were talks of him making one about 7 or 8 years ago with Timothy Dalton. I think it was called Warhead 2000 or something similar.

I liked "Never Say Never Again" for several reasons; on its own, it's a pretty good film. It does, however, suffer in comparison to "Thunderball," which is just a better film.

I liked "Never Say Never Again" for several reasons; on its own, it's a pretty good film. It does, however, suffer in comparison to "Thunderball," which is just a better film.

Casino Royale is awesome if only for the soundtrack.