What’s taking Amazon MGM Studios so long on a new James Bond movie? Apparently a lot, as a new Wall Street Journal piece describes trouble behind the scenes between Amazon executives and Bond producer Barbara Broccoli.
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“Nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release Bond movies through its $6.5 billion purchase of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, the relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the e-commerce giant has all but collapsed,” said WSJ. It appears there’s a standoff between the two parties. Amazon wants Broccoli to provide them with ideas for where to take Bond next, but Broccoli abhors the direction Amazon wants to take the character. And Broccoli is so enraged with Amazon’s ideas, she’s refusing to move forward with a new movie, effectively holding the franchise hostage. “These people are f*cking idiots,” Broccoli has said to friends about various Amazon execs.
It’s hard to disagree with Broccoli’s sentiment after hearing some of the pitches Amazon gave her for Bond’s future. WSJ states that even before Amazon’s $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM was finalized, execs had myriad brainstorming sessions on how to utilize Bond. Among those ideas: a James Bond TV show, a Moneypenny spinoff, and a TV spinoff focusing on a female 007. As one would predict, Broccoli’s response to these ideas was less than salutary. A friend told the publication Broccoli’s response to these pitches is generally, “Did you read the contract?”
Therein lies the crisis point the Bond franchise finds itself in. Broccoli wants to keep the character an old-school relic of 20th-century Hollywood filmmaking. In contrast, Amazon wants to co-opt the character to fit the current Silicon Valley-backed filmmaking era, fueled by streaming subscriptions and algorithmic data. And given that impasses, things have reportedly gotten prickly in person. An early meeting between Broccoli and Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke became a disaster after Salke referred to James Bond as “content.” Broccoli bristled at the comment, with a friend referring to it as a “death knell.” Another Amazon employee angered Broccoli after she said, “I have to be honest. I don’t think James Bond is a hero.”
So where do Amazon and Broccoli go from here? While it’s admirable for Broccoli to remain faithful to the franchise she controls, she can’t keep James Bond hostage forever. Amazon paid a ludicrous sum of money to get a hold of the character, and they’re not going anywhere. So, like it or not, the two sides are stuck with each other long-term. But is it possible to marry their respective visions for Bond into a reboot that works?
No one wants to see Bond get the Marvel treatment, where the franchise gets milked into myraid spinoffs, TV series, and so forth. But no one wants to see James Bond never make it to the big screen again. Time is also an issue here. It’s now been three years since “No Time To Die” hit theaters; not the longest stretch without a Bond movie in theaters (that’d be six years between “License To Kill” and “Goldeneye“), but it’s halfway there already. As franchises go, three years without an installment is a long time, and especially when a new actor will take over the Bond role. Fans will remain patient for only so long, so Amazon and Broccoli better settle their differences or they’ll leave a lot of money on the table.
