James Bond's long-serving producers give control to Amazon

[ShardWarrior]

The James Bond film franchise will no longer be controlled by the Broccoli dynasty, after long-serving masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson announced they are stepping down.  The pair will now give creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, which was formed when Amazon bought Bond's parent studio in 2022.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1mn9gz5x3mo

 

I very much hope the Bond franchise receives far better treatment than the Tolkien properties, although I have my doubts about that.  Time will tell.

[PeregrineFalcon]

54 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:

I very much hope the Bond franchise receives far better treatment than the Tolkien properties, although I have my doubts about that.  Time will tell.

When I saw the headline this morning I didn't have time to read the article, but my first thought was the exact same as yours.

 

I really hope that they'll keep the Bond franchise true to the original, instead of trying to put a "current year" spin on it.

 

Thanks for posting this.

[battlewraith]

I don't know what good treatment would look like. Sean Connery's Bond pretty much set the mold and those movies are challenging to watch now.

He's a womanizer that comes across as almost a sociopath at times. I loved the Roger Moore films as a kid, but they are pretty damn goofy now. The more recent films seem to try to redeem the character in light of more contemporary sensibilities but meh. I think Bond needs to be this stereotypical drinking, gambling, womanizing, killer and he needs to be set in a world where that makes sense--and I have a hard time picturing anyone, let alone Amazon doing that well. 

[Luminara]

Just throwing out a wild guess... there'll be at least six script rewrites, three directors who sign on then leave over "creative disputes", principle photography will take twice as long as originally estimated because the producers demand idiotic changes and additions every day, two years for CGI that they don't need but are going to have anyway, reshoots when the test screenings give less than impressive results, more reshoots to fix the problems introduced by the reshoots, more reshoots because the producers couldn't stop interfering, and then the whole thing will be edited into some inane fucking mess that's barely coherent and not at all what the script was like, or what the director filmed, or even what the producers imagined, packed with poorly-timed and ill-used comedy as filler.

 

I haven't seen anything produced by Amazon, but I have seen this happen to hundreds of films and I'm pretty sure it's become the default approach to filmmaking for Big Wallet Companies.  So I'm just going to have a nope sandwich, a side of nope with that, and could I get some nope on it?  Oh, and a large nope, no ice.

[JKCarrier]

You could get a pretty interesting movie by positioning a book-accurate, borderline-sociopathic Bond as the villain. MI-6 looks the other way because he's useful and effective, but eventually he goes too far and they decide they have to take him off the board. The story is told from the point of view of the agent sent to take him out, and they wrestle with the fact that this guy is legit a hero who saved the world multiple times, but also a loathsome human being.

But yeah, what we'll probably get is some bland, forgettable "Bond-Lite".

[battlewraith]

4 minutes ago, JKCarrier said:

You could get a pretty interesting movie by positioning a book-accurate, borderline-sociopathic Bond as the villain. MI-6 looks the other way because he's useful and effective, but eventually he goes too far and they decide they have to take him off the board. The story is told from the point of view of the agent sent to take him out, and they wrestle with the fact that this guy is legit a hero who saved the world multiple times, but also a loathsome human being.

But yeah, what we'll probably get is some bland, forgettable "Bond-Lite".

 

That would be better for sure, but I'd like it to be something like Bond meets John La Carre. Something more accurate to what intelligence agencies are actually like. Bond is a loathsome human being who has saved the interests of his loathsome agency in it's conflicts with other loathsome organizations. Will never happen but, that's where I'd like to see it develop. 

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, JKCarrier said:

You could get a pretty interesting movie by positioning a book-accurate, borderline-sociopathic Bond as the villain. MI-6 looks the other way because he's useful and effective, but eventually he goes too far and they decide they have to take him off the board. The story is told from the point of view of the agent sent to take him out, and they wrestle with the fact that this guy is legit a hero who saved the world multiple times, but also a loathsome human being.

 

Isn't that mostly 006 in Goldeneye?

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

TBH, while I salute the Broccoli legacy, I wasn't impressed at all by Spectre: and No Time To Die was a deeply unsatisfying resolution for James Bond's career and legacy.

 

I have a couple of thoughts about where they could go with this, but my favourite is the idea of James Bond being a "legend".

Not just the spycraft sense: the persona that someone adopts.

But the other kind too. A hero. A monster. A ghost story.

A seemingly invincible, undying phantom, whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of warlords, evildoers, and billionaire techbros.

The big bad wolf that they tell their stories children about to make sure they stay in bed.

 

So if one Bond dies (or vanishes), someone else could "inherit" the title: come to terms with entering that world and leaving their own behind.

 

The other thing I should mention is that in real life, MI6 - like many other intel agencies - does not have armed agents for legal reasons.

(Or at least not ones that do active wetwork: self-defence is reasonable.)

For that, they borrow military personnel on secondment, like Commander James Bond, RN.

So if you're asking how many 00s there are in River House right now, the answer is none.

 

Nope, these days, and they live out west in Herefordshire, and there's about 500 of 'em.

Men and women from all services, volunteering for selection, retrained in small arms, hand-to-hand combat, infiltration, and a whole bunch of other things. Like a modern version of SOE.

So Bond does not have to work alone any more.

 

One last thing. I was very wary of the Sky/Universal Day Of The Jackal series, but damn if they haven't pretty much nailed it - largely because of Eddie Redmayne's fantastic performance(s). A Bond series, with at least one mini-mission/setpiece per episode (and/or a mini version of the cold-opens), could work too.

Edited 23 hours ago by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

26 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I have a couple of thoughts about where they could go with this, but my favourite is the idea of James Bond being a "legend".

Not just the spycraft sense: the persona that someone adopts.

But the other kind too. A hero. A monster. A ghost story.

A seemingly invincible, undying phantom, whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of warlords, evildoers, and billionaire techbros.

The big bad wolf that they tell their stories children about to make sure they stay in bed.

 

So if one Bond dies (or vanishes), someone else could "inherit" the title: come to terms with entering that world and leaving their own behind.

 

 

First, I'll add my two nickles to the pot (not the pennies.  I'm saving them now that they're about to be extincted), and say that I, too, have great misgivings about Amazon taking the reins. 

 

To what you said, @ThaOGDreamWeaver: I laughed because this is exactly what a dear and slightly kooky friend has confused himself into believing for years: that "James Bond" is a title bequeathed and that a variety of men have bourne it. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)   I've told him until I'm blue in the face that different actors portrayed the same man to the end of Pierce Brosnan's era, and that Daniel Craig's was a reboot of the same character.  Love my brotherly buddy, but he's stubbornly persisted.   Now I'm seeing the idea as a possibility going forward.  🤣

 

Okay, with a major change, here's what I'd like to see: the other 8 Double Oh's.  (There's not a 000 is there?)  Let James Bond take a rest for a while, while they figure out how to handle the character going forward.  Refer to him throughout this new production, maybe even as the shadow on the wall at times, but have the spotlight specifically target the rest of the 00 class of fighters.  This does a couple of things:

• Gives us opportunities for ensemble stories: two or three 00s for big missions (not all of them at once), and a rotation of characters, movie to movie
• Allows for multiple movie shoots at the same time (Movie 1 gets 002, 005, and 008.  Movie 2 gets 003, 004, and 009) so the release dates become closer, more like an MCU lineup.
• Allows for male or female agents, any ethnicity within the British Commonwealth, and any mix thereof on the team.
• Should allow for cooperation with allied, foreign agencies more often.  Think "Felix Leighter" but in other countries besides the USA (though that's fine, too). Some of the 00s have specialized connections to key individuals or agencies where their teammates may not.
• And most especially: allows for sudden death.  No 00 will be immune.  That raises the stakes significantly, if you don't know they'll make it to the end credits.  And the cold truth is, no matter how emotionally attached the audience gets, there will be another person stepping into that 00 number and role, maybe even in the same movie.

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

Gives us opportunities for ensemble stories: two or three 00s for big missions (not all of them at once), and a rotation of characters, movie to movie

This might be relevant to your interests: Kim Harwood’s 00 Section series, which follows newly-minted agents Johanna, Joe, Sid and Conrad. Bond is an unseen presence for most of it, having apparently been detained by mercenaries…

 

…that could work well as a series play?

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

This might be relevant to your interests: Kim Harwood’s 00 Section series, which follows newly-minted agents Johanna, Joe, Sid and Conrad. Bond is an unseen presence for most of it, having apparently been detained by mercenaries…

 

…that could work well as a series play?

The descriptions sound promising, though it feels like Bond is a lot more present than I was suggesting.  I was thinking more along the lines of a comment or perhaps, as I mentioned, a shadow on the wall.  There's also the question in my mind as to how permanent these 00s are?  If the writer is unwilling to kill any of them, seeing them as a cash cow, it kind of defeats the purpose.  Not that they should be quick kills, though.  00s are supposed to be hard to kill.

 

One other thought occurred to me when reading this:  It would be interesting to see how a 00 rises to the role.  We saw a tiny bit of this in Casino Royale when Craig's interpretation made the two kills that got him the 007.  But what happens before that?  What moves a candidate from naval commander into the preparation program for 00, and then prepares them?  And would it be reasonable to assume there's an entire replacement team trained in the wings and just waiting for the call to the big leagues?

[Voltor]

13 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

TBH, while I salute the Broccoli legacy, I wasn't impressed at all by Spectre: and No Time To Die was a deeply unsatisfying resolution for James Bond's career and legacy.

 

I have a couple of thoughts about where they could go with this, but my favourite is the idea of James Bond being a "legend".

Not just the spycraft sense: the persona that someone adopts.

But the other kind too. A hero. A monster. A ghost story.

A seemingly invincible, undying phantom, whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of warlords, evildoers, and billionaire techbros.

The big bad wolf that they tell their stories children about to make sure they stay in bed.

 

So if one Bond dies (or vanishes), someone else could "inherit" the title: come to terms with entering that world and leaving their own behind.

 

The other thing I should mention is that in real life, MI6 - like many other intel agencies - does not have armed agents for legal reasons.

(Or at least not ones that do active wetwork: self-defence is reasonable.)

For that, they borrow military personnel on secondment, like Commander James Bond, RN.

So if you're asking how many 00s there are in River House right now, the answer is none.

 

Nope, these days, and they live out west in Herefordshire, and there's about 500 of 'em.

Men and women from all services, volunteering for selection, retrained in small arms, hand-to-hand combat, infiltration, and a whole bunch of other things. Like a modern version of SOE.

So Bond does not have to work alone any more.

 

One last thing. I was very wary of the Sky/Universal Day Of The Jackal series, but damn if they haven't pretty much nailed it - largely because of Eddie Redmayne's fantastic performance(s). A Bond series, with at least one mini-mission/setpiece per episode (and/or a mini version of the cold-opens), could work too.

 

 

The idea of Bond being a legend, and that the name and 007 number are passed to the next person after the previous retires or is killed is something I have had for years as well.

 

Bond/007 is the name and number that endures in the world of espionage as the legend that will be sent out to do the jobs that other agents cannot do.  Bond is the one that gets the job done no matter what.  To earn the name and number takes a lot to qualify for, and they could have a movie where the next chosen one to inherit the name and number must obtain it by killing the current Bond who has gone off the rails and is out of control, or at least that is what they are told.   The irony is at the end as the current one dies he tells the new one "You are now Bond....until they send the next one to kill you just as I did to my predecessor"

 

Something for the new Bond to think about and be wary of.

 

As to Bond, I liked it in the start of Diamonds are Forever when Connery returns and is on a world wide man hunt for Blofeld to finally end him and also to avenge his wife from the previous movie. Also License to Kill when Dalton-Bond was on a quest to avenge Felix and his wife.  Both instances of Bond going "renegade" in the official eyes of MI-6 but they actually just sat back and let him do what needed to be done.  That is the Bond I would want to see on the screen again.

 

As to him being a drinker and womanizer......well the character is a product of the time he was created.  Of course spies like him have to be able to blend in and be ready to handle all situations and targets.  People have complained in the past when Bond attacks female enemies such as at the start of Diamonds when he starts choking Marie to get Blofeld's location or in The World is Not Enough when Brosnan Bond shoots the female villain.   Bond is licensed to kill........there are no exceptions to such a license, and to obtain that license requires a certain level of ruthlessness.

Edited 10 hours ago by Voltor

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

11 hours ago, Techwright said:

What moves a candidate from naval commander into the preparation program for 00, and then prepares them? 

I'm not sure about OG Bond, but a modern Bond would have to pass UK Special Forces selection and training.

 

Being a fully covert org, SRR's methods aren't as well-known as the other services (and don't have daft celebrity survival TV series about them).

But what is known would be a pretty good grounding for a 00 agent:

• Must be aged 30 or under to apply: male or female.
• Must have served at least 2 years in any branch of the Services.
• Must have a personal recommendation from a senior officer.
• Requires high degree of fitness, endurance and awareness...
• ...not least because your first challenge is four weeks of yomping backcountry Wales with increasingly heavy loads, hand drawn maps and a compass. Oh, and any use of mapped paths, trails or roads results in automatic failure.
• Next phase is UKSF standard induction - advanced parachuting, SERE, interrogation resistance. Even less fun.
  (As is often said: "Death is nature's way of telling you you've just failed SAS training")
• Beyond that it differs from SAS or SBS, as SRR candidates specialise in areas that match their aptitudes. These are around surveillance (whether electronic or personal), infiltration (stealth, camouflage, burglary), detectivework, vehicle training, close combat (small arms, hand weapons, improvised weapons), social engineering, field medicine and language training. The academic side is considered as or more challenging by candidates as the physical side, which also needs to be maintained at a very high level.
• Attrition rate is roughly 85% (of a class of 200, roughly 30 earn a grey beret), which is very slightly lower than SAS/SBS intake.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[battlewraith]

3 hours ago, Voltor said:

As to him being a drinker and womanizer......well the character is a product of the time he was created.  Of course spies like him have to be able to blend in and be ready to handle all situations and targets.  People have complained in the past when Bond attacks female enemies such as at the start of Diamonds when he starts choking Marie to get Blofeld's location or in The World is Not Enough when Brosnan Bond shoots the female villain.   Bond is licensed to kill........there are no exceptions to such a license, and to obtain that license requires a certain level of ruthlessness.

 

I don't think the compliant hinges on Bond killing people.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/23/james-bond-no-time-to-die-cary-fukunaga-thunderball

 

"One key scene in Goldfinger features Connery’s Bond apparently forcing himself on Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore in a haybarn. In a 1959 letter concerning the novel from which the film was adapted, Ian Fleming explains that this “laying on of hands” from “the right man” was all which was required to “cure” the lesbian character of “her psycho-pathological malady”.

 

LOL?

[ShardWarrior]

17 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

This might be relevant to your interests: Kim Harwood’s 00 Section series, which follows newly-minted agents Johanna, Joe, Sid and Conrad. Bond is an unseen presence for most of it, having apparently been detained by mercenaries…

 

…that could work well as a series play?

 

There has been quite a lot of reports and articles about Amazon using the Bond IP to create a "Bond universe of content" with various films and streaming content.  Personally, I think this is a terrible idea and their focus should be on creating quality films focusing on the James Bond character.  Supporting characters like M, Q and Moneypenny were just that - supporting characters. There is some reports that Amazon are considering spinoff streaming series for each of them.  This is what concerns me about Amazon now having full control over the Bond property.  I very much hope Amazon does not treat Bond as they did Tolkien.

 

 

19 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

So if one Bond dies (or vanishes), someone else could "inherit" the title: come to terms with entering that world and leaving their own behind.

 

I find this a horrible idea.  It is the same issue as with Sam Wilson (or Bucky) becoming Captain America and the idea of "anyone can be Batman".  It reduces the character to a costume or a title or mantle that anyone can inherit.  It greatly diminishes the character.