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Comments
Providing it's an interesting location...
I'd imagine it would have to be to hold the interest of the average cinemagoer nowadays. The world of international travel to exotic locations has become a lot less exclusive since the days of 1962.
Well obviously, that goes without saying. I wouldn't want a Bond movie set in Reading, Berkshire.
Yes, but that is an issue wherever Bond goes nowadays. Exoticism is now almost banal, everywhere is far more accessible than it used to be. There are ways to alleviate this I think: focus on smaller and/or peripheral places rather than capital cities and metropoles. In France, go to Saint-Malo or Avignon instead of Paris for instance. To be fair, the Craig era has made big efforts to go to unusual places, at least when the franchise was concerned, but it would be nice to have a movie focusing to one specific place, say Innsbruck in Austria and its surroundings, the North of Italy, Cyprus or the Greek Islands, etc.
How about a Bond film set in Kent if a threw a certain nuclear defence missile into the mix? ;)
Never been to Kent, but obviously Bond being from MI6 we need a very good reason to have him active anywhere in the UK.
Blowing up the UK capital city with a nuclear rocket might be just such an occasion. I think Fleming deals with the issue of Bond being on MI5/Special Branch territory by remaining in Britain in the Moonraker novel if I remember correctly.
Yes he does and MR could be the inspiration (again!) for such film. I guess any Bond movie when most of the screentime is in one location will be a hard sell from early states of development, but it has its advantages: it would probably save money, it's easier to set up an atmosphere, you can exploit the locations to their full potential, etc.
Maybe a starting point for a James Bond TV series for Amazon? I think a TV show Bond should be considered.
Don't see it working, personally.
Not only would they have to have it in some way relate it to James Bond, without just being a shorter more serialised version of the films, because what's the point? They also have to avoid creating just another random spy story that bears no relation to James Bond cause again what's the point?
Amazon could attempt to sweeten the pot by financing her pet film and theater projects, to entice Eon to produce more frequent Bond films.
And yes, I know, US copyright expiration is coming, but Disney's copyrights expire before Eon's and watch how their lawyers fight...Eon just has to sit back and reap the same copyright extension benefits.
Her half is worth at least $400M:
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/producers/barbara-broccoli-net-worth/
Assuming a minority discount because she shares control with her brother, it's easily $500M, which makes Bond worth at least $1B.
I don't know if anyone on this forum has tried to quantify the worth of the Bond rights but it's interesting to me.
She's in quite an enviable position, thanks to the deal Cubby and Harry cut all those decades ago.
Lawyers gotta do what lawyers gotta do but that doesn’t mean they will win, and at the end of the day the law is very clear. The law says that copyright expires.
Eon’s case for extending the copyright, if they tried to do so, would be very weak. Their case would by necessity have to be based on the argument that they need to protect their financial investment.
But that’s weak, because (1) they’ve already massively recouped their investment since 1962 anyway so I don’t think any judge is going to have much sympathy for an extension and (2) they have done sweet bugger all with half of the property anyway.
It’s not simply copyright in JB that expires, it’s copyright in other Fleming-created characters too, like Dr No, Rosa Klebb, Tiffany Case and so on. Eon have done nothing with these characters since the original films so that also undermines their case that they alone should retain the right to those characters.
I agree that low budget companies might not risk a legal fight. But big corporations might be up for a fight, because their lawyers will be just as good as Eon/Amazon’s lawyers, and they understand copyright law very well.
Also, what few people have yet grasped is that while copyright in JB will expire copyright in Blofeld won’t because he was partly created by McClory, and McClory did not die until a few years ago.
So copyright in Blofeld, Spectre, the Thunderball plot etc will safely remain Eon’s until the late 21st century.
This means that there’s no real need for Eon to fight for the copyright in JB anyway.
Other people can make shows or films about JB if they want but only Eon can legally make films where he’s up against Spectre. So an “official” series can still continue.
Completely agree with the rest of your post
The last thing Disney wants is for Mickey to pass into the public domain. And Mickey's older than CR.
That doesn t matter. What matters is when the creator passed away.
Unfortunately in our case not that long after he first created the character and world that he did.
Yes, it is Fleming’s work alone that will drop out of copyright.
So, the character of Hugo Drax will be free for anyone to use, but not the character of Karl Stromberg, because Stromberg was created by Eon.
But you are 100% correct about the overlap. There will be areas of greyness and I expect the lawyers will be rubbing their hands with glee in expectation of trousering fat legal fees.
Let’s take Drax as an example. When he drops out of copyright (around 2035 so we’ve got a few years yet) then anyone can use him. But Eon’s Drax is different from Fleming’s Drax. If you’re making a film with Drax in it and your Drax is a gent who moved a chateau to California and who’s building space shuttles, well you’ll be getting a cease-and-desist letter from Eon’s lawyers because that’s not Fleming’s Drax. That’s their Drax.
The closest example I can think of is Sherlock but even that's different because the Bond book and film rights are so intertwined
Other people will be able to use the character of JB, but they won’t be able to use many of the tropes or aesthetics associated with him.
Your example of Sherlock is excellent because it proves the point. Sherlock Holmes as a character is out of copyright. Anyone can use him. However, once you start adding things or tweaking the character, then those additions and tweaks are your copyright, and you can sue anyone who copies them.
That is why there is so much clear blue water between the various incarnations of Sherlock Holmes at the moment. No one wants to step legally on the toes of the others. So Benedict Cumberbatch’s version in Sherlock is very different from Robert Downey Jr’s version, which in turn is very different from Ian McKellen’s old-man version in Mr Holmes, which in turn is very different from Will Ferrell’s unfunny comedic version etc. They take great care to put their own spin on the character.
Hmm very interesting especially where to say about a rival producer.
yet wouldn't you argue some of the tropes are there, but they are flipped on there head, like
or bond coming out of the ocean instead of a beautiful women.
what seemed as though the main villain "le chiffre" dying about 2/3rds into the film, instead of at the end. (I suppose this one was in the book) but they probably could have changed it if they had wanted.
Also when asked if he wants a martini shaken or stirred, the response being "Does it look like I give a damn"
again when you think there's about to be a car chase & it ends almost abruptly.
Also regarding the snippet of bond theme, I suppose the "you know my name" theme is more present. but there are a few snippets of the bond theme building as he gets the suit, also when he gets the car, there are whispers of the bond theme, but it doesn't resolve in the usual way.
Jokey Bond, always ready with a quip or a witticism? Eon’s already done that, so they could argue that that particular interpretation of the character is their copyright.
Rogue Bond, pursuing his own personal vendetta? Eon tick.
Cold-blooded killer Bond? Eon tick.
Know-it-all Bond who can impress with his knowledge about orchids or fish or Rolls Royce cars? Eon tick.
Anyone trying to make their own Bond film after 2035 will have to tread carefully because their interpretation of the character will need to be different from Eon’s but that will be hard to do because Eon have spent the last sixty years giving us different interpretations anyway.
Off the top of my head, I think the only things legally possible for non-Eon people after the copyright expires will be
1. Filming the early Fleming books exactly as Fleming wrote them, ie setting them in the 1950s. Eon haven’t done that so they couldn’t legally stop it. A lot of people I think would like this anyway. So you could have a proper film of the Diamonds Are Forever novel, for example. But you couldn’t make the later novels because they include McClory ideas (Blofeld, Spectre).
2. Having a very old man Bond, in retirement, doing “one last job” etc. Eon haven’t done that either.
Eon own the continuation novels and young James Bond I think so you couldn’t make those either.
So I think Eon’s position will be pretty strong
This would be a terrible idea.
Young Bond stories (methinks, in period)
Fleming successor author novels -- at least some of which could be done in period, since (a) some were written that long ago [eg. Colonel Sun, 1968] and (b) some were written more recently but set so as to have occurred just before or during the timeframes captured within Fleming's novels and stories.
These could be produced concurrently with "regular" Bond films set in the present day, whenever the films are made.
So, even without going to "Peripheral" characters, it could be done.
It reminds me of several years ago when a friend's wife suggested a Felix Leiter spinoff film or TV show. Even then I said it wasn't necessary because he's a fringe character and we know enough about him and couldn't see where he was any more interesting. Would a film or series consist of him and a colleague monitoring things from a base or in the field looking through binoculars before it wears him out and he needs to get back to the hotel?
Please just give us more James Bond films of high quality.