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Cubby took three times (arguably four!) to replace Connery which seems to be the identical "problem" you are saying? Does this mean that Cubby Broccoli had the hots for Connery?
Don't tell me your this dense.
You're the one making a sexist claim. Cubby's attachment to one actor is OK but Barbara's is not OK. The only difference is that she is a woman.
I think the BMW are the films' equivalent of Gardner's Saab. It's a useful car, and a car that the middle class may aspire to, but it doesn't have that sort of star quality. It's like if Bond wore a Timex or a Citizen or something like that.
It's because your opinion is ridiculous and factually incorrect. Cubby was most definitely not attached to Sean. Sean only came back for DAF because UA offered him $1m and funding for two movies of his choice. If Cubby was attached to Sean, he would have made him a partner which is one of the reasons he left after YOLT. You're probably the only person on this forum whos ever confidently asserted that CUBBY BROCCOLI had an attachment to Sean. I say this because they famously did not get along for many years.
My point is by any objective measure they struggled to replace him: Lazenby left after one film, then the guy they cast in "Diamonds are Forever", then Connery came back, then they finally landed on a guy.
I will not let this get twisted. Saying that "Barbara Broccoli had the hots for Daniel Craig" is on its face sexist. There is no argument that this is not using gender coded language with a negative connotation. This happens all the time with a woman in a powerful position — either she must have slept her way to the top OR she is too emotional for the position. This is unacceptable language and is unbecoming. Grow up.
The ladies are not going to sleep with you my friend. Don't play at being a white knight with your stupid argument. Look at practically any Barbara Broccoli interview where she's talking about Craig. I don't care how you perceive my and (everybody else who said the exact same thing) straightforward observation. You think a male film producer has never been attracted to a Hollywood starlet? Just quit.
This is funny because she was the boss's daughter.
Yes, I hate it. She’s a professional film producer and spent a lot of time on the Craig Bond. She’s supposed to have a lot of pride and faith in her star, especially as she picked him and co-created the whole creative route. I’ll certainly take that over Cubby failing to maintain his relationships with Connery or Saltzman which lead to many problems. Who knows whether we’d have got more Connery films if he’d worked more like his daughter.
That people treat her like some of crush-addled schoolgirl says a lot more about them than her.
=D>
File that under worst case scenario.
They're not road legal in Europe so he wouldn't get to drive it much! I'm not sure Tesla is going to be advertised by Amazon anyway.
@Daltonforyou
Let's not make this ugly, please. It's a well-known fact around here that @BMB007 has a massive penis. The ladies are most eager to sleep with him!
All joking aside, there's no need for such attacks. You've been with us long enough to know that we're not that kind of forum. And @BMB007 is not "just" going to "quit". We value his opinion as much as yours. Thank you.
Barbara Broccoli clearly appreciated working with Craig. His dedication and vigor were evident, and critical responses were overwhelmingly positive. She frequently expressed her admiration for Craig. Many filmmakers openly shower praise on their stars or business partners, but that doesn't necessarily imply anything beyond professional admiration. Ultimately, it's also part of effective PR: praising those you collaborate with helps promote your product. Even if Barbara harbored genuine admiration for Craig — which wouldn't be uncommon — it's most likely that their relationship remained strictly professional. Why wouldn't she value an actor who boosted ticket sales, excelled as Bond, and upheld her father's legacy?
Lastly, if Michael had objected, it likely wouldn’t have happened—he had a say in this as well. Frankly, this feels like an odd debate for fans to have. I've never heard anyone criticize Spielberg’s unshakable bond with Williams or Burton’s with Elfman. But when one is a woman and the other a man, it suddenly becomes easier to spin things in a more frivolous direction. It just feels utterly pointless to go there.
She's female, so no.
Been thinking about Amazon-led product placement too, but am finding it difficult to imagine what that would look like in the films. Amazon did already have a product feature in NTTD, with Q's laptop stand, but I don't think the logo was seen. If it's as subtle as that, I'm fine.
Personally I'd love to see Bond go straight back to Fleming and use brands like Floris, Beretta, Bentley, Morlands, Tiptree/Oxford etc. but wishful thinking and all. The recent comics did a good job of including some of these while keeping the story feeling contemporary. Maybe that's all they need to do to make the next era feel fresh - more Fleming imagery than seen before.
Yeah, you're right. Some of the toy cars with the Corgi red and blue packaging had no gun after the '007'. Same with all of that 2002 silver-coloured merch with black logo featuring an overlined 'James Bond'. One DAD-era pen I own has a velvet pouch without the gun. Seems to be mostly a 2002-2006 thing. But then, you can find the odd example of gun-less 007 logos on promotional gear going back to the 60s. I expect Amazon to keep the gun there, but we'll see.
Yes, these NTTD Adidas have a gunless 007 (although also feature the NTTD logo which has the gun!)
https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/news/adidas-x-007-collection
I guess I can sort of see trainer brands not wanting to put guns on their products, there might be some sensitivity there.
I think some fans are saying her obvious fondness for Daniel Craig may have been a reason/excuse not to continue the franchise or not to develop Bond 26. That's not the same as a director liking a certain film composer.
By the way, the studio would have the power to veto a film composer. If the studio didn't want a certain film composer I very much doubt Spielberg and Burton could change their mind.
Barbara Broccoli is the main producer not a director so her decisions are final. Her fondness for Craig may have been to the detriment of the franchise if - I stress if! - her fondness clouded her judgement and made her reluctant to recast the role or develop Bond 26. The evidence supports the claim she was reluctant to recast and develop Bond 26. No development in five years. No script. A draft script could have been written in a few months. The plot - the three act structure all doable during 2020. Covid-19 would have no bearing on the development of a screenplay because the screenwriters could write Bond 26 during the lockdowns. But Broccoli said there was no script so what was she doing for five years? 🤔
Also, in the past 40 years, no studio would have been able to tell Spielberg to find another composer. If a studio had vetoed Williams, then Spielberg wouldn't have made the film.
You phrase it as reluctance, but look at it from their point of view. They've been producing these films since 1989- 36 years (and obviously were working on them before that). They reinvented it twice in that time, the first time was to sort of restore it to its glory days and rework the traditional version of it, which was a massive hit and started a new series running for seven years with four massive hit movies. The second time they got more confident and creative with it, with a proper artistic vision of what it could be. Again: huge hit with the audience, created a new icon (I'm not asking for individual opinions on whether you liked Craig or Brosnan- they objectively went down very well).
Now, twenty years later, at age 64 and 83 they're staring down the barrel of starting from scratch yet again, starting another run which would ideally last 15 years again. It needs long term creative investment, and they just put everything they had into their ultimate version of Bond, which lasted 15 years. Maybe they haven't got anything left. Doing another slightly trad version would likely not appeal massively as they've been there, done that. Chris Nolan's creative vision for Batman lasted three films, people loved them, he stopped and moved on to something else as he'd said his piece. But these guys are expected to do what he didn't? Working on their fourth, fifth version of the same thing, coming up with a concept for third reinvention- it must be daunting.
As for the five years, they probably wanted a break, and then the Amazon sale undoubtably has seen an awful lot of to-ing and fro-ing behind closed doors and and willingness to protect this thing their family had built. Same thing happened to her dad, and then when the series finally came back he wasn't involved any longer either.
It's not about being in love with a hunky actor or however else people want to reductively put it: it's about following up one bold and wildly successful creative vision with another and potentially having nothing left to give.
Or had nothing left.
Some people were speculating the very same thing (granted, not the year, but EON selling the rights) on this forum back in 2017/2018. Rumors of Broccoli and Wilson wanting to sell were quite popular back then, and several users speculated that they would sell after Craig's last, especially after Amazon bought MGM in 2021.
Yeah but as cliché as it sounds... "time is money." And five years of zero development Bond 26 is a lot of time wasted? And regardless of the sale of MGM to Amazon, Eon and MGM could have hired writers to work on a Bond 26 screenplay. Broccoli and Wilson could do whatever they want, produce a play or independent film and still get a draft screenplay done. Have the basic idea what to do with Bond 26 determined.
NTTD's original theatrical release was February 14th 2020. It was released September 30th 2021. That's a seventeen months gap. A screenplay could have been completed within that time period. Barbara Broccoli could have been at the world premiere of NTTD knowing she had a screenplay ready for Bond 26.
Having a screenplay in 2021 would have given her a far better bargaining position in 2025. Her negotiations with Amazon were from a far weaker position because she had no plan where to take the franchise. Had she got a screenplay done in 2021 or 2022 then in 2025 she had a plan! She can show Amazon her completed screenplay.
Barbara Broccoli to Amazon:
"This is it. This is Eon Productions screenplay for Bond 26. The reboot of James Bond. We're open to your feedback but we, as producers retaining creative control, will not change the storyline. We are happy to compromise on other aspects of the screenplay but the story itself is not up for change."
That could have led to a compromise. But Broccoli went into negotiations without a plan and no screenplay. This was a terrible error of judgement and, to be brutally frank, incompetence. You don't waste five years not developing a coherent screenplay or detailed plan. Amazon knew Eon were negotiating from a weaker position so they probably had zero respect for Broccoli.
The bottom line is you cannot go into negotiations with a 2 trillion dollars company and have no clear plan. That's amateurish. And she lost. If Barbara Broccoli still loves Bond then she lost. The one billion dollars pay out doesn't justify her clueless lack of a plan, lack of a screenplay.
Broccoli won the battle to get a huge pay out but she lost control of Bond. I can't respect that. Had she actually bothered to get a screenplay done (she had five years to do it) then I'd have some respect for her. But she didn't.
While much attention will be given to Edward Berger’s involvement in his latest project with Amazon—partly due to past speculation about him directing Bond—the more significant takeaway is the evolving executive structure overseeing the studio.
Amazon has reinstated the United Artists banner and appointed Scott Stuber to lead it—Stuber is named as the exec overseeing Berger's film. It seems UA's mandate has a clear focus on developing prestige projects. Given Stuber’s role and influence, it is highly likely he will be the one overseeing the future of Bond, a point that a recent Deadline article strongly suggested.
Another noteworthy aspect of this Berger project is the involvement of Amy Pascal as a producer alongside Stuber. Pascal, who played a key role in working on four of the Daniel Craig Bond films, brings extensive experience with the franchise. Given that she and Stuber are actively collaborating on other projects, it seems reasonable to assume that discussions about Bond have taken place.
Ultimately, the presence of industry veterans like Stuber and Pascal in Amazon’s leadership and production landscape suggests that the franchise is in capable hands. I'd be keen for Berger to be involved, though Pascal did just produce another Amazon film with Luca Guadagnino and I'd love to see his 007 film....
Could they? How do we know that? We don't know what legal issues were potentially bunging up the works, and starting to work on a screenplay isn't a great bargaining chip if you have an issue with your production partner.
This is fantasy stuff, producing a full screenplay for a film which hasn't been greenlit seems massively unlikely to me. And you're ignoring what we seem to be looking at here: they couldn't come up with that plan.
Nah, I don't think that someone not doing something you want equals incompetence.
She's not an amateur, 36 years of hit movies proves that, and frankly if they needed more evidence of her expertise then they're the amateurs. Proven track records don't come much bigger: she had nothing to prove.
Look, you think she's a clueless incompetent, terrible at her job, if all of the hit movies don't point otherwise to that there's not much I can say to convince you, but it's all moot now as she's no longer making them.