An explosive new report has alleged the future of the James Bond franchise is “on pause” amid what was described as an “ugly” stalemate between the family in control of the character and Amazon.
via: Screen Rant
Eon's long-running spy movie franchise is based on the Ian Fleming books and kicked off in 1962. Over the years, 25 movies have been made with various stars in the lead, with Daniel Craig having most recently portrayed Bond, ending his five-movie tenure with 2021's No Time to Die. While the closing credits of that movie promised that the character will return, the upcoming Bond 26 has so far failed to make much headway, with no official casting for the iconic superspy being announced despite a multitude of rumors.
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a report offering an update on James Bond. According to WSJ, the relationship between the Broccoli family, who oversee the franchise, and Amazon (who bought the franchise's studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2022) has deteriorated. According to the report, longtime franchise steward Barbara Broccoli has confided in her friends that “These people are f— idiots" amid concerns that she doesn't trust Amazon with the future of her big-screen property, partially spurred by a lack of a marketing push for the reality series 007: Road to a Million and James Bond once being referred to as "content."
Broccoli's distrust of Amazon has reportedly led to the new movie being stalled even further, as it currently has no story and no lead actor. It seems that she is biding her time with the project, having shared the advice, “Don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions.” While some of these concerns seem to be centered around Amazon's streaming ethos, the company committed to releasing any future Bond movies in theaters as part of their acquisition of MGM.
This report reveals that the franchise will likely continue to be on hold for some time to come. However, this kind of delay is not necessarily uncommon for the franchise. The hiatuses between previous James Bond movies usually last just two or three years, but have sometimes extended longer, perhaps most notably in the six-year gap between Timothy Dalton’s final outing, 1989’s Licence to Kill, and Pierce Brosnan’s first, 1995’s GoldenEye. There was also a six-year gap between Craig’s 2015 outing Spectre and 2021’s No Time to Die.
However, should Broccoli’s primary concerns truly center on the franchise’s theatrical future, the relationship between the family and Amazon could eventually be repaired. While Amazon runs the streamer Prime Video, in recent years they have been less precious with their original movies than other streamers like Netflix, which usually only extends limited theatrical releases to its originals at most. Amazon, on the other hand, has allowed recent Prime Video movies to get full theatrical releases that have amplified the prospects of titles such as the biographical drama Air and Emerald Fennell’s erotic thriller Saltburn.
Given the long history of the franchise, it seems like a near certainty that a new James Bond movie will eventually hit theaters, even if the post-No Time to Die becomes the longest yet. However, should the upcoming movie be significantly delayed, it seems that the rumored leading men who have reportedly been in contention for the role - most notably Man of Steel's Henry Cavill and Kraven the Hunter's Aaron Taylor-Johnson - may no longer be considered, opening up the role to as-yet unknown stars.
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