It’s only been two weeks, but James Bond fans are still reeling from the news that longtime 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson will no longer be involved with the franchise creatively. So goes the terms of a new joint venture between the pair and Amazon MGM Studios, which sees the studio pay Broccoli and Wilson an additional $1 billion to relinquish any creative control. What prompted this buyout, and why did Broccoli walk away from a franchise she spent the past three decades rebuilding?
THR reports that the updated joint venture came from the very top, as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wasn’t happy with the Wall Street Journal’s long-form piece last December about frosty relations between Broccoli and Amazon executives. And one quote in particular especially irked Bezos: Broccoli reportedly telling friends that some Amazon higher-ups were “f*cking idiots.” One insider claims that prompted Bezos to find a way to buy out Broccoli altogether. “He read her quote in the Journal and got on the phone and said, ‘I don’t care what it costs, get rid of her,’ ” said the source. The new deal between the studio, Broccoli, and Wilson pays the Bond producers an additional $1 billion after the $8.5 million deal from 2022 when Amazon first acquired MGM.
The updated joint venture via Bezos also caught Broccoli in a vulnerable position, as Wilson had recently decided to retire, leaving Broccoli to contend with Amazon MGM alone. And the friction between the studio and Broccoli is already well-documented. THR lists a number of pitches from Amazon execs that made Broccoli bristle: a spinoff streaming series centered on MI6 secretary Moneypenny; a Felix Leiter spinoff; even something with a female James Bond. Broccoli hated all of those ideas, and things took a turn for the worse after Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke called the Bond franchise “content” in a meeting. By the time WSJ published their piece late last year, tensions between Amazon MGM and Broccoli had hit a crisis point, effectively halting the franchise’s future. That’s when Bezos intervened.
With Broccoli out on the creative end, it’s unclear who Amazon MGM will tap to replace her. But Bezos has what he wants now: unchecked control on the property and the ability to do with it whatever he pleases. Bond fans fear the worst, but it’s also too early to declare the franchise dead. Amazon MGM needs to find new producers who are up to the challenge of making 007 work like Broccoli and Wilson did: a team willing to take on big-budget shoots that last over half a year, and marketing campaigns that run even longer. And they also need to find a new actor to play Bond, a director up to the challenge, and a script worthy of both getting the essence of the character right and launching him into a new chapter. That’s a lot of moving parts, but Amazon MGM has the chance to do right by 007 and his fans.
So, while it’s right to be worried about what Bezos, Salke, and Amazon MGM might do with the franchise regarding spinoffs, Prime Video series, and more, there’s too much up in the air to consider Bond doomed. Is Bezos buying out Barbara Broccoli contemptible? Absolutely. But now that Amazon MGM holds all of James Bond’s cards, it’s on them not to mess it up, even if it’s equivalent to the studio playing with a loaded deck.
