Diamonds are forever.
But entertainment franchises are deceptively fragile.
Look at Marvel and Star Wars, shimmering Hollywood jewels that were gobbled up by Disney in the 2010s. They peaked and plummeted. And today, the once-invincible behemoths have become cultural nuisances thanks to greedy corporate over-saturation and shoddy products.
After Thursday’s awful news, James Bond is all but certain to follow in their path to oblivion.
In a shocking announcement, producers Barbara Broccoli and half-brother Michael G. Wilson, the longtime stewards of 007, said that they have ceded creative control of the iconic entity to Amazon.
I suddenly find myself in agreement with Goldfinger: Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.
Mark my words, the company will mangle James Bond, a series I cherish, beyond recognition.
Until now, the British superspy has been a family affair. Broccoli and Wilson’s Eon Productions, started by dad Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961, have produced all of the 25 main films. (Two others, starring David Niven and Sean Connery, are separate oddities.)
That’s a relatively controlled amount of output for 62 years, as opposed to Marvel’s obscene 35 flicks over 17.
Many of them are exceptional and some were fumbled (cough, “Quantum of Solace,” cough), but all were made with the care and consideration of people with a father’s legacy in mind.
That’s over.
While Broccoli and Wilson will retain some ownership, it’s Amazon who’s holding the Walther PPK.
The writing was on the wall when the company acquired Bond’s distributor MGM in 2022 for $8.5 billion. Now, they can let loose.
Remember that, first and foremost, Amazon’s core business is a website where you can buy an in-ground swimming pool and “The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche” in two clicks.
For them, 007 is little more than intellectual property to spice up quarterly earnings reports. They will plunder every possible aspect of the franchise. They will pump out as many films, TV shows and other peripheral nonsense as possible.
Think a “Young Q” spinoff series. Moneypenny, held back behind a desk for so long, will surely be granted the “license to kill” in her own films. We’ll get “Cruela”-style backstories of villains like Jaws and Blofeld.
And, invariably, we’ll tune out all the noise.
Look at the mess Amazon made with “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” They dropped a cool $1 billion on a wretched TV series that nobody likes.
And, behaving like SPECTRE, they gave us a preview of their evil plot for Bond when they produced the reality show “007: Road to a Million” in 2023. Remember that? Thought not.
Are these the right people to entrust with one of the greatest brands in cinema history?
It’s been four years since Daniel Craig’s final outing as Bond, “No Time To Die,” hit theaters. Rumors about casting and directors have proliferated to the point some outlets reported that Aaron Taylor-Johnson had signed on to play Bond.
But, also in that time, the Wall Street Journal reported that Broccoli had privately told her friends of Amazon, “These people are f— idiots.”
Clearly they were butting heads. It’s no wonder she took the money and ran.
Now with Broccoli and Wilson mostly out of the picture, Variety reports that there are no plans currently in place for the next film.
The wait could be long, and will likely exceed the franchise’s longest gap — the six years between 1989’s “License to Kill” with Timothy Dalton and 1995’s “GoldenEye” starring Pierce Brosnan.
In 2018, I went to a party at Broccoli’s Upper East Side townhouse celebrating the Broadway musical “The Band’s Visit,” which she was a producer of. She excitedly regaled the crowd with stories about growing up on set with Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Incredible stuff.
That was the first time I realized the extent to which James Bond has been a family business, and how much that rich history mattered to its future.
The end of “No Time to Die” was a first for the series in that it appeared to shut the door on 007. But at the end of the credits, that classic line still popped up: “James Bond will return.”
Now, I don’t think I want him to.
