Never Say Never Again

Actor: Sean Connery
US Release Date: 7 Oct 1983
US gross, $ [adjusted]:28,000,000 [45,307,443]
Worldwide gross, $ [adjusted]: 55,000,000 [89,150,469]
World Premier - 6th October 1983, Mann's National Theatre, Los Angeles
Locations: London, Shrublands Health Clinic, Nassau, Bahamas, Monte Carlo and the South of France, the Mediterranean, North Africa.

Source for above info: The " mother " of all James Bond books - James Bond: The Legacy.

Happenstance
   

Kevin McClory is a film producer who first made plans with Ian Fleming to produce the first ever James Bond feature film back in 1958. The after events led to the production of Thunderball , with Kevin McClory as a producer along with Brocolli. In exchange he abandoned all claims for rights to the screen treatment for another 10 years after the initial release of the film. When in January 1976 the rights came back to him he started making plans for another Bond film. This time he wrote an original script along with Len Deighton and Sean Connery himself, called "Warhead 8". When legal battle started again by EON he was finally forced to only produce a direct remake of "Thunderball". The result was "Never Say Never Again". Being a non-EON production, this film is devoid of the Bond theme and the Gun-barrel sequence. The teaser starts with Bond (an aging Connery) participating in war games and snatching defeat at the hands of a nymphet from the jaws of victory. And hence Bond is dispatched to a health clinic to recuperate. The story parallels that of Thunderball (after all this is a remake!) and the only differences are the insipid cast, with the exception of Sean Connery, who once again as a one-man show carries the entire film on his shoulders.

Coincidence

Playing almost exactly the same character as the Domino in the earlier movie, Kim Basinger looks like a Playboy bunny more than a Bond girl. She comes out as a dumb blonde for whom we don't feel for as we did for Claudine Auger. As Max Largo's key henchwoman, and SPECTRE assassin Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) hams to the hilt and does come out as a stronger character than Basinger.

Enemy Action

While Moore was running through the jungles of India in Octopussy , Sean was battling age and SPECTRE. Onscreen he succeeded against both but Box Office wise Octopussy defeated "Never Say Never Again" at the box office with much bigger collections affixing Roger Moore firmly as James Bond.
Nigel: Only to plead for your return Sir. M says without you in the service he fears for the security of the civilized world.
Bond: Never again.
In fall of 1996, Kevin McClory divulged that he was planning to remake Thunderball as Warhead 2000 A.D. Then Sony announced it would produce a rival James Bond series based on the rights owned by McClory. The battle between MGM and Sony over the rights to the Bond series ended in March 1999 with Sony giving up any claim. But McClory said he wasn't ready to say never again about making another Bond movie based on rights he claims to own through his work on the screen treatments for Thunderball. The controversy finally ended when the court finally said "Never again" to McClory. Good riddance.

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