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Personally, I’m expecting some surprise with the next film, regardless of whether that’s a shockingly generic movie, or one that even exceeds expectations (or indeed is worse than any of us can imagine).
Maybe that'll change over time. Maybe Amazon will surprise us and nail it right off the bat. I said that if I didn't like whoever was cast as the new Bond, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt until I'd seen the actual film, so I should do the same with Amazon, right? This feels different, though. There's an air of bad faith about this whole thing - it feels less like a business deal between equals and more like a hostile takeover where Amazon have won and EON have very definitely lost. It's going to be hard to fully embrace BezosBond with the taint of that hanging over it.
I wholeheartedly agree, my friend. The world and its future are uncertain, so is James Bond's. But, as the man said, "Hope springs eternal".
I just hope they focus on the man, and not on the "team" and put him with earplugs and interchangeable dialog all the time. The one man on a mission alone is what drew me in to the Bondverse. Oh, my, will there be a Bondverse now? ;) lol, let's hope not. Just focus on the man, Amazon!
Technically DAD was the last time we saw Cubby's Bond, since Brosnan was his hire, though overall I feel like I haven't seen an actual Bond movie since QOS.
I love Skyfall, but I do understand what you mean. For me, NTTD was as low of a point as DAD was.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/21/stars-shaken-stirred-amazon-deal-james-bond
I'm assuming Amazon didn't expect to pay this amount of money to co produce Bond films! Amazon paid over 8 million dollars to purchase MGM and that included the 50 percent share in the franchise and other IPs and the back catalogue.
It's easy to be cynical and say Eon played Amazon for suckers. By Eon stalling on making Bond 26 due to creative differences, Eon could name their price to give up control.
My guess is Eon saw the vast dollar amount and said "okay! Bond's all yours, Amazon!" If the over one billion dollars figure is accurate and it goes straight to Eon and not into producing new Eon films or some locked savings account, that makes Barbara Broccoli close to a billionaire. He wealth was estimated to be 400 million. If the Amazon figure was around or over a billion, she may have around 500 million and MG Wilson the other 500 million. That makes her net worth 900 million dollars!
I don't want to be too harsh but money rules this world so for all this stuff about her wanting to protect the Bond legacy, I'm assuming that was bullsh*t. The reality was "take the cash and run."
Frankly, that's the bit that hurts more, isn't it?
I guess so but money talks loudest. If you or I were offered one billion dollars to give up Bond we might say yes. Maybe. It's a huge amount. It's just that Broccoli made a big deal out of protecting Bond.
Well you only took it seriously until Jeff Bezos said "take this billion and give Bond to us!" Seems the responsibility was subject to change. 🤭
It's possible Broccoli agreed to kill off Bond as the means to get to this deal. Craig said "I'm never coming back" so they decided to kill off Bond. That automatically led to franchise limbo. No clear direction forward. Maybe if Amazon hadn't bought MGM she would have sold Eon's stake because it was reported she didn't want to produce Bond without MG Wilson and he was retiring after NTTD. My guess is she decided to kill off Bond with no intention of recasting the role. Had MGM remained unsold she was going to sell up anyway? I guess so. I'm sure buyers - be it a studio or a private equity company - would have been interested in going into a partnership with MGM.
The Amazon acquisition was probably Eon's best way out. A stroke of good fortune. Amazon have effectively paid 8 billion to get 50 percent of Bond in 2022 and 1 billion more to get Eon's share in 2025. Eon retain 50 percent intellectual property rights which is meaningless in reality. Other than a court recognising Eon retain 50 percent intellectual rights it is meaningless. Unless they retain some power of veto - and the press release doesn't suggest they do - their rights to the franchise amount to nothing. Amazon haven't spend one billion dollars to let Eon interfere. If Amazon were to cast an American actor as Bond (with or without a British accent,) can Eon veto that casting? Based on the press release information, no. Eon retain their share but their power of veto was traded for one billion dollars! The art of the deal indeed.
Hopefully this means they agreed on certain things for the future.
And frankly, if I was already a millionaire, with a network of 400m+, I’d say no to THAT billion, yes, I would, for love no less. Because madness still exists in the name of love, and it’s as close to being lucid as one can get, paradoxically.
I suppose that's one way to look at it. Everyone and everything has its price.
I am disappointed as I feel something has been lost. But then billionaires can have anything they want and control whatever they desire. In some sense, no Bond story can be more fantastic than what is happening now. Oh, well.
It’s hard to be excited about that when none of the creatives of the last 60 years will be involved. Seeing Bezos post online asking who people would like to see as Bond is not as interesting as the Broccolis making deals behind closed doors, picking actors based on pure gut instincts. Connery and Craig didn’t win the part because of a focus group or algorithm, they were hand picked by a producer who saw their worth.
The casting of Bond has become even less interesting with Amazon in charge.
Maybe he is just trying to reach out to the fans and seeing what they want vs a private hand picked decision remember at EON there was no "democracy".
It's called advertising. Nothing wrong with it.
Well that too
Screw that. If Eon left it to the fans we would have never gotten Craig.
Was this recent?
The James Bond character goes out of copyright in 2035 or thereabouts. Amazon thus have ten years to maximise ROI. It will become harder for them afterwards, because they will be competing against other JBs. They have a decade of monopoly. So I think we will see huge amounts of 007 product for the next ten years.
Other than the extra billion dollars that Barbara got, if I were to guess three things had to be agreed to before she released creative control to Amazon
1. The Bond movies must always be released in theaters.
2. Bond must be British.
3. And Bond must be male.
As long as Amazon sticks to those three things I don’t think she cares about what else they do.
The last thing they want to do is alienate the hardcore fans by breaking away from what Bond is and starting completely fresh
I like how nobody cared about Billionaires until two seconds ago, and its only a problem now because Elon Musk has made a public foray into politics.
In what universe have people never cared about gross economic inequality? You must've been living in a pretty cloudy bubble.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I'm just not sure the New Yorker will be still around in a few years.
I still don't know what to say. I honestly don't. I have one voice in my head saying this is silly it's a fictional franchise who cares. then there is another part of me that is still holding back tears every time I am confronted with this news. I can hear my boss in the back of my mind "must be nice to have so few problems you worry about a film franchise" and he is right... I suppose this is a "nice" problem to have. Though it's still upsetting. What's worse is I genuinely don't know what to do or even where to go with my emotions on this.
Rumor is the Broccoli household is in mourning as well and honestly, I get it. for those who are excited I wish I shared your enthusiasm believe me I genuinely mean that. Though for me its sadness, its anger, its frustration, its depression, its frankly emotions I don't want to deal with.
The first question I ask myself is who to blame? Is it Harry Saltzman's fault for tying half of Bond to United Artists (and eventually Amazon studios)? Is it Barbara and Michael's Fault? After all they sold it.
Is it the fans fault? we are a fickle bunch after all.. Maybe she did get tired of the fans well visceral reaction to everything she did over the last 20 years.
Is it Amazon's fault? I mean could they have enticed her to do more sooner. fund her passion projects in exchange for faster movement on Bond 26.
Even the wording in the official press release is weird "Amazon MGM Studios, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli today announced that they have formed a new joint venture to house the James Bond intellectual property rights, and those parties will remain co-owners of the franchise."
What does that mean? are they still producer or not? do they have 0 say some say?
of course, I am not super close to any hardcore bond fans, so I don't have a shoulder to cry on and honestly Calvin and David's videos kind of made things worse not better.
We can say this is all about money, but Amazon is a fool if they think they can do better then the family that started it all. Are they that blind to the truth.. are they that blind to facts? Again, if this is all about more product why is Amazon Prime not running James Bond Jr? Why are they not doing Specials? Why are they not filming Q the music Concert and posting those? I mean all of that is content.. is it not?
And apparently there was a sticking point Babs and Amazon could not agree on... Casting.. the Writers.. the Director...
MGM and Sony were both smart enough to let the Broccoli's cook for the most part (rumors about Dalton's departure aside) why couldnt Amazon.
if their heart wasn't in it why are there rumors that eon's offices are in mourning shouldn't they be celebrating?
Will I ever get answers to any of my questions no I won't. I am not naive enough or self centered enough to think I am owed any kind of explanation I get it.
The other side of the coin I keep seeing is just how "bad" Michael and Barbara were... No one is perfect apart from a carpenter 2000 years ago (but let's not get into religion) and yeah Michael and Babs made blunders but so did Albert, and Even Albert and Harry. You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and The Man with the Golden Gun were all under the original producers watch and all mistakes in my opinion. For just Albert you have the poor cut and paste job of Moonraker. For Albert and Michael, you have A view to a Kill. And yes for Babs and Michael Die Another Day and the last 2 Craig films weren't great if I am being diplomatic. I enjoy some of it sure (the first 2/3rd of Die another Day, Spectre's PTS and the cuba sequence of No Time to Die) but I can also find things to praise in the previous examples as well. In my opinion whatever iteration of producers, you want to talk about in the official film franchise all of them made great films and well bad films. all had highs and lows.
There is another complaint that scares me the fact that even the titles won't be exciting anymore. Is Amazon going to give us Fleming titles.. no probably not my guess based on their other literary titles will likely be called just Bond. I can't imagine Amazon having the balls to call a film or show The Hildebrand Rarity or The Garden of Death. and then there is the time period. Casino Royale and Goldeneye both proved Bond works in the modern era. and yet I fear amazon is going to be lazy and put it in the 60's because the focus group says so.
Though I doubt anyone has made it through my ramblings where does this leave us. Honestly I don't know. I foolishly hoped a good night sleep would give me a fresh perspective. but I am awake and still upset. Amv I embaressed by my knee jerk reactions yesterday about how Bond is dead.. sure of course. but I also don't know what to do.
Could Amazon pull me in giving me what I want, Modern Era, Fleming Title (Possibly The Hildebrand Rarity), Daltonesque actor as Bond (possibly Cavill or ATJ), Rock theme song, Fleming Plot... of course they could.. But will they and the answer I keep coming back to is ... No
Would EON's bond 26 have hit all the marks above? Possibly but in my heart of hearts I believe EON would be closer to what I want then Amazon.
Would Amazon even screen test the way EON did. no probably not.
Is it over... no its not... but do I personally want to be involved. I don't know. I wish there was someone anyone who could give me even a Quantum of hope instead of either A ignoring my pleas or B making me feel worse as its just a silly movie franchise.
Above all I want to thank @Benny and the wonderful MI6 staff who have given us a place to dream to wonder to talk and to in some cases cry. I want to thank Ian Fleming and all of EON including the actors past and present for their work over the years
And while I feel a little better typing this up and posting it I do still feel lost and welcome literally any DMS or feedback beyond the above "advice"
Thanks