The Battle for Bond deal with Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli: "Thunderball" (1965) that was released at Christmas. McClory's court victory also entitled him to remake "Thunderball" (1965) as "Never Say Never Again" (1983), again with Sean Connery as James Bond, the cinematic competition Broccoli had tried to legally ban. With the remake, McClory attempted to continue with his own James Bond film series, but was stopped after legal action by Broccoli and MGM. In a later unsuccessful lawsuit, McClory went further and now claimed that he created the cinematic James Bond, and demanded a share of the three billion dollars earned by
James Bond filmography boring". After a hiatus of one film—"On Her Majesty's Secret Service", in which George Lazenby played Bond—Connery returned to the role for "Diamonds Are Forever" after David Picker, the head of United Artists, made it clear that Connery was to be enticed back to the role and that money was no object. When approached about resuming the role of Bond, Connery demanded—and received—a fee of £1.25 million (£ million in pounds), 12.5% of the gross profits and, as a further enticement, United Artists offered to back two films of his choice. His performance received mixed reviews, with Raymond Benson considering