Timothy Dalton fantasy plots and humour. A fan of the literary character, often seen re-reading and referring to the novels on set, Dalton determined to approach the role and play truer to the original character described by Fleming. His 007, therefore, came across as a reluctant agent who did not always enjoy the assignments he was given, something seen on screen before, albeit obliquely, only in George Lazenby's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". In "The Living Daylights," for example, Bond tells a critical colleague, Saunders, "Stuff my orders! ... Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I'll thank him for
James Bond in film $8.9 million ($ million in dollars) from June that year. From its budget of $36 million, "Never Say Never Again" grossed $160 million. McClory attempted to produce another "Thunderball" adaptation as "Warhead 2000 AD" following the success of "GoldenEye" in 1995. Liam Neeson and Timothy Dalton were considered for 007, while Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were developing the film at Columbia Pictures. MGM launched a $25 million lawsuit against Sony, and McClory claimed a portion of the $3 billion profits from the "Bond" series. After a prolonged lawsuit, Sony backed down, and McClory eventually exhausted all legal avenues to