Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the Nehru-jacketed bad guy from the James Bond films might be making a return to the big screen as the main villain of Bond 24 following a settlement announced Friday between studio MGM, production company Danjaq and the estate of Kevin McClory.
The leader of the fictional terrorist organization SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) who's often seen stroking a white cat was born in a screenplay hatched by Ian Fleming and McClory.
The character hasn't actually shown up in a007 movie since 1981s For Your Eyes Only due to a 50 year lawsuit between MGM and Danjaq LLC after the former allegedly used the story in his novel ‘Thunderball' without crediting the latter.
Blofeld was one of those characters involved in the feud which has now been settled.
The dispute dates back to 1959 when McClory met with Ian Fleming, the author who created the famous 007 in a series of spy novels. McClory took credit for proposing to Fleming the idea of a Bond film set in the Bahamas. A writer was hired to create Thunderball, which later also became a Fleming novel.
Bond 23 scribe John Logan recently hinted at the possible return of Blofeld in the 24th film in the franchise, which is poised to open in UK theaters on October 23rd, 2015 and in the US on November 6th, 2015. Should it be revealed that a Blofeld is the leader of Quantum played by Javier Bardem?
So far Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw are expected to reprise their respective roles and Sam Mendes is also back as a director.
