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So, while I hate to say it, I'm not hopeful about the future of James Bond. But all good things have to end sometime, and whatever comes next, good or bad, we still have 25 films from Eon Productions, each of which are special in their own way, and will never just be "content".
Here's to Cubby and Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, Harry Saltzman, and everyone else who made the EON Bond, the greatest film series ever.
By the way, maybe we should take a leaf out of Doctor Who's book and start referring to the next film as Bond 1.
Maybe Amazon will hire "staff" involved with the previous Bond films ?
I do think that Barbara and Michael have perhaps felt a bit exhausted from Bond, but I agree that it feels like there's more to this story, than this bit of news and the WSJ article. It feels like somebody, perhaps people on both sides were not wanting to play ball. I don't know what specifically, but what was the purpose of the WSJ article then? People connected to Eon made their feelings known to that reporter who wrote that and informed him/her of what Amazon was like. What was to gain from that? Was that a part of negotiations?
Seems like it was a part of negotiation. It didn't move the needle evidently.
Time will tell but it seems that the WSJ article was the canary in the coal mine.
After a day's reflection (not long!), my best guess is that (1) Barbara and Michael knew that they couldn't ultimately retain creative control as against Amazon's money and lawyers and (2) they feared the copyright expiring, so that in ten years, when they are in their 70s and 90s, the $1 billion buyout would be a lot lower.
Post-Harry, Cubby always faced weak studios, not powerful conglomerates. Apples and oranges.
Harry, in the end, sealed the fate of Cubby's family. It just took fifty years to unwind.
And there was clearly no successor chosen (either producer or Bond) beyond Michael and Barbara.
Do you think Amazon were planning to sue Eon if they didn't get a film up and running?
What has happened makes sense to me
Daniel Craig was Barbara's choice for Bond and the Craig era films represented her vision of what James Bond could be, so from an "artistic" standpoint she'd given it her best shot and there was nothing left to do, other than tred water
On the other hand, selling now, while there is still 10 years or so to run on the copyright, makes the best financial sense in terms of maximising the sale value.
Also explains why NTTD ends as it does... Babs dropping the mic
However the "life" of Fleming's Book Bond has continued long after the author's death, via Kingley Amis, John Gardner and others, and even includes a "Young Bond" series and a "Double O" trilogy. I'm sure there are mixed opinions on how those have worked out and whether they are a blessing or a blasphemy
Movie Bond will now encounter the equivalent fate...
I had the same thought when I heard the news.
Being one of the naysayers regarding NTTD, I'm not doing too much hand-wringing about this sale. People seem worried that Amazon will take the screen Bond in a direction they won't like, well that already happened for me.
I'm less worried, more interested. And I really couldn't imagine EON carrying on doing 'classic' style pre-Craig adventures. When you look at the long wait between Bonds, and them killing almost everyone off in the last film, this news isn't much of a surprise, is it?
Put it this way, I was bought up in the Moore years, with a new adventure every couple of years. Now, in 2025, I haven't enjoyed a big screen Bond film for ten years. If Amazon start pumping out regular fun Bond adventures with an eye on the books, to keep them grounded, I'll be quite happy.
That’s really interesting, I didn’t know that.
That’s really interesting, I didn’t know that.
Yes it’s funny, I listened to that earlier in the week and it rather aged like milk! :D
I agree with you, to a point. I have never been a flag waving fan of the Craig era, but.... BUT, I do feel that worse can be done to Bond. It only takes a cursory glance at how characters have been cast/recast in recent years, to see what might be in store for Bond.
You mean with bad actors? There’s always those around.
I’m sure you don’t mean anything else.
Could you bookmark my post, i'd like to see it again in 2 years time. It'd be nice to see if i'm right or wrong.
Is there a reason you feel you can’t say what you mean explicitly?
@MajorDSmythe is per usual right on the money
Absolutely not. It's always nice to have old posts that I had forgotten about, being brought up. It's like having my own personal archivist.
You're too kind.
Great: go ahead.
I have a memory, yes, I don't think that's all that weird.
I think Bond should be straight, white and male.
.
My guess is once Craig convinced Eon he wasn't going to come back...
1) The NTTD script was altered to kill off Bond. This may have been one of the reasons why Danny Boyle and John Hodge left Bond 25.
2) Michael G Wilson told Barbara he was retiring after the release of NTTD.
3) Barbara Broccoli, perhaps with great reluctance, decided she didn't want to carry on without Wilson so she too would retire.
The intention was to sell their share to MGM or anyone else giving them a better offer. Amazon came along and bought MGM in 2022. This was the moment Barbara Broccoli knew her tenure was over. She knew Amazon was very unlikely to share her vision of Bond nor compromise.
Under legal advice Broccoli was told to stall any development on Bond 26. "Wait two to three years because this will the best bargaining tactic to raise the value of Eon's stake. If you don't sell up straight away you get the buyer to raise their offer."
Three years from the purchase of MGM and Amazon offer Eon an amount that's too good to turn down. A reported billion dollars (which may include film/merchandise residuals in perpetuity). Barbara Broccoli says "yes, I accept your offer."
My guess is that's the course of history. If the Deadline article is accurate then Broccoli didn't want to continue without Wilson. Maybe she needed him as moral support. Maybe Wilson was just as important in the film making process so with him in retirement Broccoli felt it was time to retire too. Unlike Cubby Broccoli, she has other projects. Cubby went solo in the mid 1970s but I don't think he produced other films. His only focus was James Bond. It's possible it's too much work, too much stress for Barbara Broccoli to produce future Bond films without her brother. She has to deal with Amazon questioning her decisions plus the stress making other non Bond films or any theatre projects.
It's possible Eon decided to retire when Craig told them he wasn't coming back for Bond 26. Eon allowed Craig to kill off his Bond because Eon had decided No Time To Die was their final film. At the time of release we never knew that, we just assumed Eon had made a very controversial decision to kill off Bond (!) but Eon were fully committed to a reboot, but in hindsight four years later it's possible Eon had decided to retire when NTTD was in production.
.
We know this is not true because Danny Boyle has said publicly that the plan was always to kill off Bond and was featured in his script. There's literally no way he would have been hired had he refused because that was the plan for the film and that's what he would have been commissioned to include - a retired Bond coming back for one last mission, and dying at the end. It's more or less the same with any other Bond film (at least under EON). They even introduced a child under Boyle's development. That's the story we would have gotten with his script even if the overall plot of the film was otherwise different to NTTD. The reason he gave for leaving was due to creative differences and EON wanting to bring in other writers to help develop the script.
Like I said, none of us know anything when all's said and done. At least before a certain point.
Isn't that what we've already seen? This character will evolve .
Haha, yes! They made some good comments about EON and Barbara Broccoli though.
I'm jealous if anything, I wish I could share in their optimism
Come what may, there's a lot of negativity towards this amongst fans and even in non-Bond circles. I've never seen anything like it personally. It's not even a case of vehement hate (Bond films and things like casting choices ultimately drum up strong feelings either way, and for every hater there's always been people who sit on the other side of the fence and love these choices/films.) It's more a general resignation to a potentially inferior film or approach going forward.
It'd be a shame to prove that right, no matter how financially successful the next film is.
For a youtuber any news is better than nothing.
Bond IS straight, white and male. Changing that would be changing Bond. If they want to change Bond, they can and will, nonetheless it will be changing Bond, so it won’t be Ian Fleming’s James Bond, and to a degree, it won’t be EON’s James Bond, but Amazon’s James Bond. Let’s just hope they’ll be one and the same. Why would they buy the golden goose just to kill it with experimentations? They’d be mad. But hey, maybe they are. Let’s just hope the person they put up to the task will have a lucid comprehension of what the character is all about. Maybe we’ll get a Fleming fan? Who knows? Too early to tell.
Well yes that's true, it's an opportunity to earn some cash. Thankfully he's not one of those who has some extreme opinions just to get as many clicks as possible.
True. Besides, if their object of “youtubeing” gets properly killed, they’ll be left with nostalgic content only. So I get that they “want” to remain positive.