Robert Sellers devotes a chapter in his book The Battle For Bond to the film project, Warhead - The Bond Film That Never Was. In it, he gives a detailed description of the background to this script which was a collaboration between producer Kevin McClory, thriller writer and creator of the Harry Palmer character immortalised on screen by Michael Caine - Len Deighton, and the first screen Bond - Sean Connery. Sellers depicts this script as: one of the great-unfilmed scripts in cinema history, described in Hollywood circles as 'Star Wars' underwater. As a result of a combination of legal objections from Eon Productions and Connery's and Paramount's ensuing reservations, Warhead was never made.

With Never Say Never Again, Kevin McClory used his hard fought for rights to the Thunderball script updating it with '80s technology. Sean Connery was enticed back to the role of Bond by a number of inducements including total creative control, a $3million fee, and a percentage of the profits. The film's ironic title pre-empted the media frenzy which greeted Connery's return as 007. Connery's performance in the film was widely regarded as having held the whole movie together.