The news that Amazon has taken over full creative control of the James Bond franchise from Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother, Michael G Wilson, is no everyday business chatter. So associated have the siblings – Broccoli in particular – been with the series that this is like hearing Taylor Swift has passed the role of Taylor Swift on to another singer.
The statement comes in the wake of much gossip about a falling out between Amazon – which acquired MGM, rights holder of Bond, in 2022 – and the heirs to the late Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, original producer of the series. In a lengthy Wall Street Journal exposé, published just before Christmas, Broccoli, quoted by “friends”, was said to have “characterised her thoughts on Amazon this way: ‘These people are f**king idiots.’”
She used more emollient language after the unexpected announcement. “With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects,” she said.
It seems Wilson, Broccoli and Amazon MGM will now enter a partnership to house the intellectual-property rights but that the studio will retain sole creative control.
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“We are grateful to the late Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman for bringing James Bond to movie theatres around the world,” Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said. “We are honoured to continue this treasured heritage, and look forward to ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world.”
That “next phase” could look very different from what has gone before. The industry is poised for Amazon, taking its lead from what became of the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe, to expand into multiple spin-offs on big and small screens. That has not been Barbara Broccoli’s way.
In 1995, a year before his death, Cubby Broccoli handed control of Eon Productions, the company responsible for Bond, over to his daughter and stepson. The two were first credited as producers on Goldeneye, the opening Pierce Brosnan episode, in 1995 and have shared that role until the release of No Time to Die, the final Daniel Craig adventure, in 2021.
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Barbara Broccoli, clear-headed and strategic, has always come across as the dominant partner. Over the past 20 years, franchise entertainments have evolved into multidisciplinary industries. Who can keep track of all the TV shows associated with Marvel? It was not enough to release three Star Wars sequels. We also, apparently, needed two spin-off films.
Through it all Broccoli has, with the odd wobble, stayed true to the original plan. There was some talk of spin-offs featuring Jinx, played by Halle Berry in Die Another Day, and Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies, but the team ultimately stuck to Cubby’s original template. No telly (bar one odd reality competition, called 007: Road to a Million). No films starring secondary characters. That purity of approach has surely helped the franchise retain its dignity.
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Broccoli worked on other successful projects. She and Wilson coproduced a stage version of John Carney’s film Once that won eight Tony awards before opening across the globe. The near-complete reboot of Bond that brought Craig to Casino Royale, in 2006, was a triumph. Skyfall, from 2012, became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time. Released in 2021, at the penumbra of the pandemic, No Time to Die was thought to have saved cinema when it raked in close to $800 million. Only Spider-Man: No Way Home took more that year.
And then ... nothing. It has been 3½ years since No Time to Die was released – and more than six years since it was shot – but Eon has yet to announce a director, a writer or, most importantly, a star for the next episode.
If the Wall Street Journal story is to be believed, the Amazon takeover has much to do with that. “The relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the ecommerce giant has all but collapsed,” Erich Schwartzel and Jessica Toonkel wrote. The story speaks of Amazon executives brainstorming a Prime Video TV show or a Miss Moneypenny spin-off. “Broccoli’s response to such enthusiasm, one friend said, is often the same: Did you read the contract?” Schwartzel and Toonkel explained.
What can have happened? As the news sunk in, Deadline reported that “Amazon MGM Studios shelled out an extra $1 billion-plus to take control of James Bond”. Having met Broccoli a few times and experienced her stirring dedication to the legacy, I was among those who believed that any rival would need – paraphrasing Charlton Heston on his firearms – to prise control of Bond from her cold dead hands.
It is now 62 years since her dad helped invent the swinging decade with Dr No. Though the Broccoli name may still make the credits, this feels like the Guinnesses moving on from stout or the Cadburys abandoning their chocolate. Now wait for TV shows, the spin-offs, the animated series. Après Broccoli, le déluge.
