Why I’m shaken, not stirred, that Amazon are taking creative control of Bond
Now the big question on everyone's lips isn't who will be the next Bond, but where and how will they be Bond?
Moneypenny: Origins. Blofeld: Legacy. Jaws: The Revenge.
All ill-advised ideas for James Bond fanfiction that could now become very real films after this week’s shocking news. (Except for that last one – that title is already taken by another movie that exists but probably shouldn’t).
Step-siblings Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, long-time producers and custodians of 007 as a film franchise – their father Albert R. Broccoli helped kickstart the series – are stepping back from creative control of Bond, passing it on to Amazon MGM Studios.
The studio, Wilson and Broccoli have reportedly formed a new joint venture to house the rights. While the three will remain co-owners, Amazon MGM will have primary creative control.
Now the big question on everyone’s lips isn’t who will be the next Bond, but where and how will they be Bond?
Although 007 has long been under the MGM umbrella prior to Amazon buying the legacy film studio in 2021, Bond was one of the last movie series overseen by a family operation rather than a corporation.
Step-siblings Michael G. Wilson (right) and Barbara Broccoli (left) (Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)It is, of course, ridiculous to frame a multi-billion-dollar media franchise as an underdog. But in the last few years of major studio mergers (such as Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox), the heads of Amazon MGM couldn’t even take creative pitches on Bond without the permission of Wilson and Broccoli.
It maintained hope that those at the top of the corporate ladder in Hollywood won’t automatically get their way all the time. The fact that Barbara Broccoli had recently expressed disapproval with Amazon’s ideas for Bond’s future makes today’s news all the more surprising.
It could be that none of the specific pitches that alarmed Broccoli will ever get made in this new era. But the practices of Amazon and other streaming platforms suggest one very likely outcome: lots of spin-offs.
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Previous Page Next Page The practices of Amazon and other streaming platforms suggest one very likely outcome: lots of spin-offs (Picture: MGM/Eon/Danjaq/UPI/Kobal/Shutterstock)Open Netflix and you’ll be fed many continuations of The Witcher, while Paramount+ is going all in on expanding the Yellowstone-verse. The Boys and Bosch are just two Amazon hits with spin-off series available.
And Amazon’s also behind The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which, while not connected to the beloved Peter Jackson adaptations of Tolkien, was absolutely greenlit to capitalise on their success decades earlier.
The Lord of the Rings is actually a good case study for what Bond has been spared from: over-milking an intellectual property.
Peter Jackson’s later trilogy of Hobbit films saw worsening commercial and critical responses across their release, while the recent animation The War of the Rohirrim, a box-office flop set in the Jackson films’ continuity, was greenlit just so Warner Brothers could extend their rights to make Tolkien films.
The Lord of the Rings is actually a good case study for what Bond has been spared from: over-milking an intellectual property (Picture: Amazon/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)Will one of the few huge franchises that’s still restricted to theatrically-released event movies now be spread thin?
In recent years, part of what’s made the 007 series so special for people is their scarcity.
We get two to three films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe per year. We got five theatrically-released films from Disney’s revival of Star Wars between 2015 and 2019.
Meanwhile, there were five Bond films starring Daniel Craig between 2006 (Casino Royale) and 2021 (No Time to Die). Even if the movies weren’t always great (looking at you, Spectre), they felt special because we’ve not been drowning in them.
Comment nowHow do you feel about Amazon acquiring Bond? Have your say in the comments belowComment NowYou’ve also got to wonder what the likelihood of Bond becoming both a film and streaming TV franchise might mean for actually contracting someone to play the spy.
Purely just for having time to do anything else, not many actors are going to want to be Bond in both movies and on TV. But also, if Amazon were to split 007 stories across both, few people would want to be the TV-only Bond if another actor will be the Movie Bond.
I’m pessimistic about this news (Picture: Milne/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)There are other worrying industry concerns. Although Amazon MGM does still produce films for cinemas, the turnaround between their theatrical exclusivity and streaming debuts is sometimes hurried, which is potentially bad news for cinemas being able to maximise the audiences that Bond brings to the big screen.
And for anyone not wanting a Prime membership, Amazon MGM is not consistent with making sure all its films get released on physical media formats like Blu-ray.
I’m pessimistic about this news, but if I can find one glimmer of hope amidst the uncertainty of Bond’s fate, it’s this: I’ve long felt that the next Bond entry should be a period film set in the 1960s, reimagining the era in which the cinematic icon started from a modern lens.
If we’ll now get a separate TV Bond in addition to the films, that could be a genuinely intriguing path to take.
And we’re far enough removed from the last Austin Powers instalment for it to work.
Of course, by the time you’re reading this, Amazon may already have acquired the rights for a Bond-Powers crossover: a licence to kill two birds with one stone.
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