- Jack Whittingham
Jack Whittingham (
1910 -July 3 ,1972 ) was a Britishplaywright ,film critic , andscreenwriter .Beginning with the film "
Q Planes ", Whittingham was a prolific screenwriter. He is particularly famous for having collaborated withIan Fleming andKevin McClory on aJames Bond screenplay for afilm . When these plans were scrapped, Fleming novelised the work into his ninth official novel, "Thunderball"; however, the novel only credited Fleming. McClory and Whittingham then sued Fleming, which led to a settlement in 1963 that gave McClory the film rights to the novel. During the lawsuit, Jack Whittingham stepped down as 'co-plaintiff' and stood by Kevin as 'principal witness', having previously signed away all his rights "of whatsoever nature" entirely when the screenplay was presumed finished. As a result of the settlement, future versions of the novel were forced to credit, "based on the screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming" (in that order). Two adaptations of "Thunderball" were subsequently made, the first being "Thunderball" in 1965 as part of the official series of films fromEON Productions . The second adaptation, the unofficial James Bond film "Never Say Never Again " in 1983. Further adaptations had been planned at one point or another by McClory, but were scrapped due to lawsuits fromMGM andUnited Artists .The actual film, "Thunderball", credits are somewhat complex. Like a good number of James Bond films, it was promoted as "Ian Fleming's "Thunderball"." The screenplay was credited to
Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, but was credited as having been "Based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham," which also was credited as being "Based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming." Jack's sole original screenplay credit has been omitted from posters and other promotional materials.Whittingham died in 1972, eleven years before McClory's "Thunderball" remake, "Never Say Never Again" was released in theaters.
He was educated at Charterhouse and
Christ Church, Oxford Further reading
*
Kevin McClory
*The controversy over "Thunderball"External links
*imdb name|id=0926525|name=Jack Whittingham
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