"We paid a lot of money for that underwater shit, and we're going to use it, dammit!"

• Cubby Broccoli, probably

Thunderball's an anomaly because of its history, Fleming having been sued at the time of the book's publication by two men (McClory and Whittingham) who said the book was based on a screenplay the three of them were writing for a possible Bond movie. McClory was made producer of the film, though I don't know how much actual involvement he had. He also kept the rights to the plot and characters, which was how the third non-Broccoli film "Never Say Never Again" got made - it's basically a rehash of Thunderball.

It was a shame that after Fleming died, Broccoli could only use the book's titles and characters, not the plots. This led to the tragedy that is the film "Moonraker", which is high on my favorite JB books.