"Never Say Never Again" is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel "Thunderball" by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had previously been adapted into a 1965 film of the same name. "Never Say Never Again" is the second and most recent James Bond film not produced by Eon Productions (the usual producer of the Bond series) but instead by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the "Thunderball" story. McClory had retained the filming rights to the novel after a prolonged legal battle from the 1960s.