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You disrespect Barbara Broccoli, who helped to keep Bond relevant and successful for almost three decades, because after the exhausting endeavour that was NTTD she didn't "bother" to get a screenplay fast enough? I cannot follow you there, I'm sorry.
3 years without an actor was the kiss of death.
Cubby at least had Dalton.
It is amateurish and unprofessional to own the James Bond franchise and go into negotiations with a two trillion dollars valued company and have no plan how to move the franchise forward.
"No script." That's what Broccoli said in December 2024. So what was her plan?
Nothing. No clear idea how to make Bond 26/no clear idea how to reboot the franchise.
It's also unprofessional to kill your IP in the last film. But we've discussed Bond's death a gazillion times so it's a redundant topic, I guess.
I don't mean to attack her personally but maybe it's time to be brutally honest and not assume she knew what she was doing. If, however, she planned to quit all along then she achieved it. She bailed on Bond and got a big pay out.
She was very smart or very foolish. Take your pick.
Getting a billion dollars is not evidence of foolishness so my guess/opinion is she had no intention to make Bond 26 period. It was never going to happen. She was stalling MGM prior to the sale and then stalling Amazon MGM after the sale to get them to agree the highest offer to buy her out.
This evidence glosses over Covid--for a while, everyone wasn't sure if they would live or die--and the behind-the-scenes corporate struggle between Eon and Amazon which we discovered only a month ago was much worse than we all thought.
It is not that different than the Eon/MGM fights of the '80s and '90s...just with an arguably much worse outcome this time.
That too.
Yeah, they need time to come up with a story for why it's not just money.
I think this was about leverage, corporate leverage, and ultimately Eon couldn't outlast Amazon and its trillions.
I am surprised as anyone that Eon seemingly caved but look at the numbers:
Amazon is worth $2.24 trillion, and even if you estimate Eon was worth $1 billion before the sale (Eon is privately held, so no one knows), that means Amazon was worth 2240 times Eon going into the negotiation.
Eon didn't stand a chance against Amazon. You try holding out against someone with 2000 times your net worth.
If Eon spent 1% on lawyers in a year, that's $10 million. If Amazon spent 1% on lawyers in a year, that's $20 billion.
No chance.
At this rate, either is possible. I just read yesterday Part II still doesn't have a script ready, but part of me is thinking they're waiting to see how Superman does in theaters before continuing with more of Pattinson's Batman.
I know they’re not bringing that version into the official DC films. Personally I’m much more interested in part 2 than I am Superman or a new DC Batman. It’d be a shame if they felt they couldn’t have two Batman versions and leave it at part 2 (if it did happen it’d be a stark warning for Bond/a good lesson not to indulge in multiple Bond versions such as a faithful Fleming adaptation series alongside the official films). That said I’m pretty sure their plan’s always been for 3.
I’m not sure if Bond would want to go head to head with Batman but I could be wrong too. But it’d just be a case of coming up with an alternate month for the release if it’s a 2027 one (who knows, maybe they’ll do a summer release under Amazon). I don’t think it’s unlikely it’d be 2028 in practice either though considering they seem to be starting from square 1.
On another note. We all know that the word "content" was thrown around months ago when the discussions between EON and Amazon.
Based on your own personal gut feelings, do you think that Amazon will create a bunch of spin-off shows that rival what Disney is doing with Marvel and Star Wars?
Yes (sadly), but not immediately.
In terms on fiction/narrative stuff they need a film (and a bloody good one) to build this all off.
So we will likely get a film first.
I can see them doing more documentaries etc to fill the gap, a bit like the specials you would get on TV.
I’d be happy if we got things like that personally. Depends on what they cover ultimately though.
Yeah I think you're right: the first TV stuff we get won't be an expensive drama but some kind of documentary or hosted programme. I could imagine a travel or lifestyle show where they take someone like, say, Naomie Harris to some super exclusive five star hotels around the world and have her drive nice Aston Martins, something like that.
Walmart is currently ranked the richest company in the world based on consolidated revenue. Source: Fortune Global 500 list Fortune Magazine.
With Amazon making more money than Walmart, Amazon may replace Walmart as the richest company in the whole wide world!
"Global domination, Mr Bond. And neither you nor Barbara Broccoli can stop me."
;))
"In late January 2024, Barbara Broccoli attended a performance of her stage musical “Buena Vista Social Club” at the Atlantic Theater in New York. The longtime James Bond producer and gatekeeper was joined by three top Amazon MGM Studios executives — Jennifer Salke, Courtenay Valenti and Julie Rapaport — for a night that also included dinner and shop talk. For months, Salke’s boss, Mike Hopkins, had spearheaded discussions with Broccoli about Bond’s future at Amazon. The purpose of the night’s tête-à-tête was for Salke to make Broccoli comfortable with the studio’s loose plans for the first Bond movie since Amazon acquired MGM in 2022 for $8.5 billion. But sources say Broccoli left the meeting uninspired by Salke, a longtime TV executive, and returned to her home in London. Shortly after, talks began for the siblings to relinquish creative control of what is viewed as the last untapped mega-brand, one comparable to Lucasfilm, Marvel and DC. (Amazon declined comment. Eon did not respond to a request for comment.)
Following a year of fraught negotiations, Amazon will soon have a full grip on the franchise that has spawned 25 films about Agent 007 but whose TV, licensing, spinoff and interconnected cinematic universe potential remains unmined. (The deal needs regulatory approval in the U.S. and U.K., which is expected sometime this year.) Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos, who signed off on the complex transaction that sees Broccoli and her half-brother, Michael Wilson, retaining a financial stake in the property, is keenly interested in how the tech giant can bring Bond into the digital age.
“If you own a Ferrari but don’t control where or if it goes, it’s frustrating,” says former Amazon Studios chief Roy Price. “The Broccolis have provided the best example in Hollywood history of managing a character. But in today’s complex landscape, it makes sense for Amazon to get in the driver’s seat and control their own destiny.”
For years, Broccoli and Wilson resisted the siren call to fully exploit the property that is based on Ian Fleming’s spy novels across multiple platforms and sometimes didn’t see eye-to-eye with each other, according to insiders. But their move to limit the exposure of the man with a license to kill may have proved prudent, considering that the ubiquity of über-brands like Disney’s Marvel and Lucasfilm sparked audience fatigue and prompted a pullback on output. (Longtime Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy will step down this year, with that franchise — like Bond — entering a new era.)
But some say Broccoli was too cautious and exerted outsize control — to the detriment of Bond. Sources say Christopher Nolan expressed interest in directing a Bond movie following the release of “Tenet.” But Broccoli made clear that no director would have final cut while Bond was under her purview. Nolan, a final-cut director, wound up making “Oppenheimer” as his follow-up to “Tenet,” with that film earning nearly $1 billion at the global box office and winning the best picture Oscar. (Decades earlier, Steven Spielberg wanted to make a Bond movie following “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” but was blocked by Broccoli’s father, the late Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, because he was too inexperienced.)
Still, there’s a reason the Broccolis held the reins tightly. Bond is and will continue to be a tricky needle to thread. He was created at the height of the Cold War, long before gender equality was a mantra. Yet modernizing the martini-loving lothario too much poses its own issues.
“There’s something so special and unique about Bond, and you can’t just strip him of the things that make him so debonair and cram five projects into production right now and not totally destroy everything about the property,” says Peter Newman, head of the MBA/MFA graduate dual degree program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “And if you make Bond more politically correct, you’re going to have a lot of pushback.”
Industry observers have more confidence in Amazon’s ability to bring forth a high-quality Bond film than a TV series. The TV division has found success with fantasy dramas “The Boys” and “Fallout,” but it has struggled to generate much Emmy or zeitgeist traction with its shows. The studio gambled on a pricey “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series that never lived up to its potential as one of the most coveted pieces of intellectual property in Hollywood. And even Amazon — one of the most well-capitalized corporations in the world — can’t afford another spy show like “Citadel,” which is considered one of the most expensive TV series ever made, with Season 1’s six episodes costing $300 million.
“You have to make a realistic assessment of your team’s capabilities and what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses, and [a Bond TV series] plays right into their weaknesses,” says one industryite.
Sources familiar with Amazon’s next steps on Bond say a film is still the top priority, and the studio will look first to attach a producer in the vein of David Heyman, who shepherded the “Harry Potter” and “Fantastic Beasts” films with a cohesive vision.
As for Broccoli, she’s still creatively tied to Amazon and has a strong working relationship with Valenti and Rapaport. The studio is in active development on a “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” remake that Broccoli is producing.
And although Amazon can’t move forward with hiring anyone on Bond until the Broccoli-Wilson deal is closed, that hasn’t stopped every agency in town from pitching its best writers, directors and leading men. Price thinks Amazon should look internally when casting one of 007’s nemeses.
Says Price: “Jeff [Bezos] should have a cameo as the supervillain’s IT guy trying endlessly to get the printer hooked up to the Wi-Fi.”
They say a Heyman like producer. Not him specifically. Though not a bad shout.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/barbara-broccoli-sells-james-bond-decision-1236146734/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/james-bond-amazon-mgm-broccoli-1236147148/
For all I’ve given Nolan credit, it’s funny that the sticking point of his was not having final cut over the film. He should have known that in Eon’s world the director is the tenant not the landlord.