The 26th James Bond movie is set to present a unique challenge for Amazon, following their takeover of the popular spy IP. The James Bond movie franchise has proven one of the most successful and long-lasting, with a total gross of more than $7.8 billion across 25 films. From the character’s big-screen Eon debut, in 1962’s Dr. No, the Broccoli family has always been involved in production. But all that looks set to change, with Barbra Broccoli ceding creative control of the franchise to Amazon MGM, and the company might find more unique challenges than they expected.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jack Cork, who wrote the Bond bible for Eon in the mid-90s shares his views that rebuilding one of cinema’s most beloved franchises from scratch brings many challenges, not least the fact that nobody involved with Amazon has experience of making a Bond movie. The films can prove notoriously difficult to make, and can often involve long, grueling production schedules. Amazon has plenty of filmmaking experience, but a franchise as iconic as Bond has certain rules, certain approaches, and a plethora of things that bubble below the surface to keep Bond popular.
“People think they know James Bond because they know the iconography of the martini and the gun and the gadgets. But there is a very particular set of things that occur below the surface that have kept the character resonating for over 60 years. There’s a line from the novel Goldfinger about how high tension was Bond’s ‘natural way of life’ and that ‘pressure and danger relaxed him’. Amazon is going to need to get people in the room who understand that.”
What This Means For Bond’s Amazon Future
The Franchise Faces An Uncertain Period
As with any rebirth, there is going to be a long and uncertain period for Bond under Amazon, and it will be important for the studio to hit the ground running. It has been four years since Daniel Craig’s Bond bowed out in style with No Time To Die, and the character’s death at the end feels like the franchise has reached a natural reboot point. But that doesn’t mean the essence of Bond should be completely changed, and the elements that make that character and that world what they are.
The Broccoli’s had a familial link that ran through every movie; they understood James Bond as a character and a movie franchise, and their lack of influence could prove highly damaging to the IP.
Having a new cast and crew for James Bond is a bold move, and this could result in a franchise that feels different from what people are used to. It will be interesting to see how Amazon negotiates this, and whether they attempt to bring in a couple of people experienced in the franchise to shepherd it to production. But the first course of action is going to be choosing a new actor to play James Bond. Once Amazon settles on this, it will become easier to start the process of getting all the other pieces in place.
Our Verdict On James Bond 26
Amazon Will Need To Steady The Franchise
The future is uncertain for 007, and Amazon’s takeover was met with skepticism by many Bond fans, with legitimate concerns about how the character (and franchise) would be impacted. The Broccoli’s had a familial link that ran through every movie; they understood James Bond as a character and a movie franchise, and their lack of influence could prove highly damaging to the IP. However, times change, political and economic climates shift, and rebuilding the world of James Bond could work in the modern era, but Amazon will need to listen to the advice of those who came before them.
Source: THR
