Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Movies

James Bond's Next Assignment: Amazon Pays $1 Billion for Full Creative Control (deadline.com) 84

Posted by EditorDavid from the die-another-day dept.
Deadline reports: It's taking around $1 billion to have 007 stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson cede creative oversight of their family's storied James Bond franchise to Amazon MGM Studios, sources tell us. Amazon originally overpaid on its purchase of MGM in a deal orchestrated by then-MGM board chair Kevin Ulrich. Though valued between $3.5 billion-$4 billion, the legendary motion picture studio was absorbed by the streamer for $8.5 billion, the hefty sum propped up by the potential access of the 007 franchise. However, Amazon couldn't fully freely develop Bond with Broccoli and Wilson in the mix. Hence, it took another $1 billion to ensure that they could fully steer and exploit the Ian Fleming IP.
The article suggests Broccoli's long hold-out came from "Amazon's desire to expand the James Bond franchise into its own universe akin to Marvel or Star Wars." In the past, filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan have expressed an interest in putting their stamp on Bond; both however, required complete creative control, which wasn't possible under the reign of Broccoli and Wilson. Now, with the producers on the side, Amazon can move forward to attract a top-tier director.

Also available to come to life in the new deal finally are a slew of Bond villains and women in their own series or features. The last time an attempt was made to spin off the Bond franchise was in 2003 with a stand-alone movie about the spy's girlfriend Jinx, played by Halle Berry in Die Another Day. Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Rob Wade were attached to pen that, with Stephen Frears circling, but Broccoli and Wilson put the kibosh to the idea due to creative differences.
In a related note, the article adds that Amazon "is looking to have an international theatrical distribution arm fully operational by some time in 2026."

Jeff Bezos asked his followers on X.com who should play James Bond in the next movie, reports IGN, "and the answer was loud and clear." On X.com the "clear fan favorite" was DC Extended Universe actor Henry Cavill. (Besides playing Superman, Cavill also appeared in the 2024 film spy action-comedy Argyle, and fought Tom Cruise's character in 2018's Mission Impossible: Fallout — and played Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix series The Witcher.)

James Bond's Next Assignment: Amazon Pays $1 Billion for Full Creative Control More | Reply

James Bond's Next Assignment: Amazon Pays $1 Billion for Full Creative Control

Comments Filter:

  • Enshittification (Score:4, Informative)

    by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @11:37AM (#65187099)

    The end of the franchise.

    • Re:Enshittification (Score:5, Funny)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:05PM (#65187153) Journal

      Yeah let's hope they don't ruin it with really silly stuff like a bowler hat that can cut off a man's head or tray gun battles in space and a giant with metal teeth who can bite through anything but mostly people.

      Ooh our a giant space ray gun and duels between almost invincible cars ended only with the vehicular equivalent of a sword fight because the sword is mightier than the Gatling gun, missiles and other miscellaneous devices.

      • Re:Enshittification (Score:4, Informative)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:18PM (#65187183)

        In their defence the only critique you listed which can be attributed to Broccoli and Wilson is the last one, and that movie was universally panned as the worst Bond movie and saw the production change direction shortly after.

        The first few you mentioned were all movies which immediately predated the writing by Wilson and production by Broccoli, so it's pretty damn clear that their creative decisions have been overwhelmingly positive for Bond (except for the stupid space laser). They took over immediately after Moonraker, which itself came after The Spy Who Loved Me.

        And given Goldfinger came out when Broccoli was only 4 years old even if she was responsible for bowler hat killer, it would still have been an impressive feat for someone who would have been pooping in a diaper throughout the production ;-)

        • Die another day (I misremembered the order of action with the car sword) was definitely Broccoli, and I also think Amazon will ruin what there is of it.

          I was being facetious, and I think James bond is somewhat overrated as a cultural touchstone, especially given how much it's changed. However when it was bad it usually tended towards campy and ridiculous but at least silly fun. I think Amazon will most likely infuse it with bland corporate mediocrity.

          They might manage to get a good director who staves that

      • Maybe I'm wearing rose-colored glasses here, but the campy stuff was what gave Bond films their charm. Once they started making them as Mission Impossible clones, it just wasn't the same.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        Bond has always been stupid, camp, snarky, detached from reality. But I think people went in with certain expectations and if those expectations are pulled away then it's going to suck.

      • Look on the bright side. With the popularity of OF today, Pussy Galore isn't just a character. That's like a (w)hole-ass scene with a deep plot.

        "What makes you think, this is my first time.." - Bondage, James Bondage, Skyfall

        (He swears he didn't know about Silvas personal ah, umm, Island.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      The end of the franchise.

      I don't know. I'm sort of looking forward to seeing Jeff Bezos appear in the next Bond movie. Flip a coin to see if he plays Bond or the supervillain? On the one hand it's past due time for a bald Bond, but on the other hand, he's too natural for the role?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Calydor ( 739835 )

        He'll play Q - the extremely smart guy Bond gets all his cool tech from.

        • He'll play Q - the extremely smart guy Bond gets all his cool tech from.

          Totally worth it if the next Bond car is a Rivian Amazon delivery van.

      • I’m surprised Bezos hasn’t been asked to play Lex Luthor in a Superman film, since he’d need no makeup or acting ability. He probably even has a stash of kryptonite.

        I’m slightly less surprised that nobody has asked to use one of his rockets in a remake of Flesh Gordon (it wasn’t a particularly successful franchise).

    • The end of the franchise.

      That's a good thing. Nothing lasts forever, and we're always encouraging Hollywood to try new things rather than pumping out retreads, remakes, and reboots.

      Obviously not so great if you've just paid $1bn, but that's not our problem.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )

      The more someone pays the more likely it is to happen. Look at Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones as examples. I fully expect Amazon will shit out Young Bond, Old Bond, Bond Adjacent, Spinoff Bond, Bond Bond, and Bond Nemesis. Expect to look forward to the Adventures of Q in their own side series, or SMERSH Agent Zero or whatever the fuck because Amazon paid a billion and because of course they will.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      I have doubts the franchise has much legs left anyhow. And that's OK. These things run their courses. You're not still pining for a Lone Ranger or Mr. Moto or The Saint reboot, are you?

      As I've often pointed out here, franchises are built on an impossible promise: rehashing the same experiences endlessly. But that can't happen. If nothing changes, things get boring; and what's even worse *you* change. Nobody really wants the same thing over and over. So franchises have to reinvent themselves, continually

    • Pink haired and nose ringed Trans.

  • And here we go! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @11:42AM (#65187117)
    James Bond, pet detective! In this thrilling three hour adventure, James Bond, a 55 year old black woman, explores the darker side of kitten and puppy mills, fighting against an evil villain who doesn't care how many kittens are abandoned in his pursuit of keeping women down and pouring crude oil onto the ocean. As she uses interpretive dance and feminist protest methods to stop the evil villain she meets and falls in love with Timothy Cuntaway, her lesbian lover.

    • HAPPY IT IS NOT DISNEY (Score:4)

      by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:28PM (#65187219)

      I really don't care but I'd never see the abominations Disney would produce with this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kiyooka ( 738862 )

      ?

      • Something something woke.

      • You'll notice that about half the comments here are "LOL NEXT BOND TRANSLESBIANBLACKCRIPPLE" and they all think they're the world's greatest comedian, and it's all because they saw a Netflix original movie once where it was an action movie but instead of starring Jason Statham like Republican Jesus intended it starred a *gasp* woman and never mind the fact that there have been action movies (and TV shows!) with women or black people or {name minority here} for decades, this is somehow new and "woke" rather

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I think they are worried that it ends up like The Boys - extremely anti fascist. The crazy thing is that they keep having to ram home the point that Homelander, the super Hitler, is the bad guy, because too many people keep thinking he's the good guy.

          Bond had mostly avoided politics lately, probably in no small part due to dedicating one of the movies to the then good guys, the Taliban.

          As for if Amazon will ruin it, they have proven that they can make good shows, but also poor ones. Much like the whole Bond

    • Oh my God, are you like, psychic?!

    • Last I checked, we still live under a capitalist society (a bit late-stagey, but I digress). If the series isn't to your liking, no one is forcing you to hand over your money for it; you can always just watch something else. Pro-tip: Other countries produce entertainment too, and usually you can get it with these things called "subtitles" to bridge the language gap.

      That being said, if Bezos is asking the internet peanut gallery on X what they want in the series, it will be bad not because of "wokeness" bu

  • Top Tier Director (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @11:43AM (#65187119)

    "Now, with the producers on the side, Amazon can move forward to attract a top-tier director."

    That won't happen. If Amazon is paying a billion dollars for the rights to an IP, they aren't going to cede control to any director. The film is going to have to be shot in a place the Amazon board decides, some producer is going to want plot points injected to set up a sequel or franchise, filming locations are going to be based on tax credits or political convenience, and certain products are going to be featured as dictated by Amazon. That product placement isn't going to be diegetic, like a watch or a car, it's going to be an Amazon tablet, or an Alexa device.

    I highly recommend the HBO series The Franchise to see how this all works. There is a genius scene where the director is forced to feature a Chinese built farm tractor in his superhero movie set in outer space.

    • "Now, with the producers on the side, Amazon can move forward to attract a top-tier director."

      That won't happen. If Amazon is paying a billion dollars for the rights to an IP, they aren't going to cede control to any director.

      There are the top-tier, and then there are the Super-top-top-top-tier. You are not going to get a Nolan, or Cameron without giving up full control, but there are many very good top-tier directors who might be good choices (and a few that, over the years, have indicated some interest). 007 means different things to different people (and just like Doctor Who, many have their favorite Doctor, or Bond). I am not convinced Amazon will do right by 007 in their first attempt for all people, but they now have th

      • You are not going to get a Nolan

        Shame. I always figured James bond could do with more deafening horn noises. Maybe interspersed with the dirty jokes. Oh James you always were a cunning linguist BRAAAAAAMMM

    • Re:Top Tier Director (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SethJohnson ( 112166 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:26PM (#65187209) Homepage Journal
      I'm not a fan of product placement. In most cases it's a repugnant cash-grab by the studio.

      Consider this perspective, if you may...

      A director is an artist who works within a set of constraints. The budgets can be gargantuan and seemingly freeing a director of constraints, yet, they are always still there. Producers can require certain actors be featured to secure the film's funding. Locations can be dictated based on tax incentives. Even the framing of each shot (aspect ratio) can be controlled by the distributors offerings of projection equipment.

      A good or great director is empowered by their ability to define an artistic vision and then navigate the constraints to present their vision with the least amount of compromises as possible.

      Another way of looking at the Chinese farm tractor is that the director may have had a concept that exceeded the budget offered by the producers. A scene perhaps that would have been exceedingly costly and the producers were unconvinced it would add enough umph to the resulting product to justify the expense. So, a producer might have suggested to the director, "If you can somehow fit this farm tractor on screen somewhere in this story for 35 seconds, the manufacturer will kick in the money you need to execute on this scene." Is that selling out? Or is the director ensuring their artistic vision is completed without sacrifice?

    • Add to these production deficiencies the fact that the content produced by these streaming studios is entirely divorced from the need to make money.
      Amazon, Apple, Netflix, etc is perfectly happy to loose hundreds of millions of dollars on a franchise as long as the mid-level executives can point to some intangible rise in subscriptions or some positive insider reviews.

    • There's been some decent (or at least well regarded, I personally think Nolan is overrated, but for some reason he's beloved by online tech people) directors who have directed movies in franchises before. That said, that doesn't mean the resultant franchises have been great, and there has to be someone driving the franchise forward who's passionate about it. That's why WB failed over and over again to put together a DCEU, because ultimately everything was rule by committee and the one time they picked someo

  • It seems that nobody in power at entertainment companies wants originality
    It's all about retelling old stories, over and over
    Franchises, reboots, remakes, sequels are overwhelming us, and AI will almost certainly make it worse as long dead actors are artificially brought back to life to retell old stories
    Meanwhile, talented writers are unemployed

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      The people in charge in Hollywood are the people who control the money. What they want is reliable income, even over big paydays. They would rather have a reliable $1 billion a year in revenue than a chance at $10 billion one year, if the other possibility is less than $1 billion.

      These are people who whose entire career depends on not having any creative talent. Creativity actively interferes with the business plan.

      You cannot plan your embezzlement properly if you don't know how much cash flow there will be

  • The character died at the end of the last movie. This was foreshadowing for the death of the franchise.

    One might almost believe it was intentional, as a negotiating tactic.

  • Amazon bought rights to the Lord of the Rings and produced one series that was ok then another that bombed. It's quite possible that there will be no more to follow. You can argue about why that was - I would say poor writing and straying way too far from the source material, others would say 'DEI' or similar - but, either way, the result was clear. It would be nice to think that they learned their lesson from that and will approach Bond differently, but I have no real hope that they will. Bezos apparently

  • Amazon holds the The Rings of Power over the Bond franchise now, so we know what to expect.

  • With the $4 billion plus-up on the studio and another $1 billion, Amazon is now in for roughly $5 billion to acquire the Bond franchise. This can only be because Jeff Bozo wants this and the board apparently cannot deny him what he wants no matter how unlikely an RoI is. To get an RoI they will have to turn James Bond into a phenomenon at the level of Barbie and then sustain that for the better part of a decade. Possible, but unlikely.

    This is a Jeff Bozo personal project and any "top-tier director" is

    • This can only be because Jeff Bozo wants this ...

      He's already got the hair to be a classic Bond villain [wikipedia.org], he just needed the franchise rights -- and a white cat.
      I actually think Musk would be better, though, but he'd have to reverse the hair transplant ... :-)

  • I used to enjoy the films, through Casino Royale. Quantum of Solace sucked. I actually saw Skyfall before QoS and that was good but the later trailers couldn't even raise my interest levels.

    But I'm more of an On Her Majesty's Secret Service guy than a Moonraker guy so the paying audience might be elsewhere.

    It's not obvious that the movie theatre business will even exist soon, given the way it's run so maybe this is a leading indicator.

    Amazon doesn't seem to have any interest in hiring faithful writers so I

  • The next James Bond will be played by a bald billionaire. [wikipedia.org] The villains [wikipedia.org] will be poor people with great hair.
    • Theregister [theregister.com] suggested these movie ideas:
      License To Kill -9
      For Your iPhone Only
      AI Another Day
      The name's Bezos, Jeff Bezos
      etc ...

      Many of the ideas actually sound better than the future movie ...

  • This is really a copyright issue (Score:3)

    by thecombatwombat ( 571826 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:34PM (#65187233)

    From Bond, to Lord of the Rings, to Marvel, the big money in media is now just owning properties that are so old as to be universally recognizable, but not so old as to be actually entering the public domain, so that you can sell them to mega corporations who can turn out perfunctory garbage.

    Enshittification at scale.

  • Saddest cinema news I've ever read - feels like treason. Thankfully, we've had a great series of good James Bond films.

  • Who is ready for the Moneypenny spinoff?

    • Moneypenny's grand-daughter; a precocious young teen, uncovers plots with foreign agents in a small English port city.

  • James Bond is action with a difference. You can't just throw car chases and attractive male leads in there and pretend it's Bond, it has to be done the English way. There are as many ways to ruin Bond as there were ways to ruin Lord of the Rings!

  • James Bond Against the Arch Villian Brikenmortar (Score:5, Funny)

    by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Saturday February 22, 2025 @01:10PM (#65187327) Homepage
    In this episode James Bond 007, travels to rural hometowns to destroy the outposts of an international ring of physical stores headed by the evil made Genius Brokenmortar, only to learn the he also must go against the head of Unitedpackagesmashing as well!

  • He had a good run, but that is over now.

  • I won't watch it. It's nice to have some variety, do we really need The Rock or Ryan Reynolds in every single movie?

  • The evil mastermind has finally killed bond.

Slashdot Top Deals

There's got to be more to life than compile-and-go.

Close