What the Amazon deal means for the world of James Bond

When the streaming platform (and retail supergiant) Amazon bought the studio MGM in 2022 for $US8.5 billion, it was an asset acquisition arguably on the scale of Disney’s acquisition of Marvel and Star Wars or Paramount’s ownership of Star Trek.

What it did was put Amazon’s hands on one of the great golden chalices of intellectual property: the fictional world of British super-spy James Bond, based on Ian Fleming’s iconic series of novels, and the spin-off cinematic universe, created and controlled since 1961 by producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli.

Amazon is seeking to refresh the Bond franchise.Credit:

A vast Bondverse lay in wait: imaginative and terrifying spin-offs such as The Young Bond Adventures, The Prime of Miss Jean Bond, Bond Hills 9021007. (OK, we made up those last two.) But in a business fuelled by spin-offs, sequels, prequels and gender-spinning reboots, the mind boggles with possibilities.

Standing in the way? Broccoli’s heirs – producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson.

Since Cubby’s death in 1996, Broccoli and Wilson – or, more correctly, their production company Eon Productions – has controlled Bond and kept him on a tight leash. As a result, in almost 70 years, just 27 Bond films have been made, starring Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

All that changed the week before this year’s Academy Awards. Broccoli and Wilson signed a deal with Amazon to hand the platform control of the Bond empire, the completion of a transition that began, to some extent, almost three years ago when Amazon took over the studio that housed the Bond library.

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko in 2008’s Quantum of Solace.Credit: Karen Ballard

The Bond franchise is now a joint venture in which Broccoli and Wilson and Amazon MGM Studios remain co-owners. And not an inexpensive one. The final transfer of power, reported US trade publication Deadline, was worth $US1 billion ($1.58 billion).

But as with most Bond twists, the devil is in the detail: Amazon MGM will have creative control. Which means what, exactly? That’s the question everyone in Hollywood is asking.

How much control does Amazon have?

One hundred per cent. The joint venture has partners, but Amazon now runs the show when it comes to new Bond content. That includes casting a new James Bond for the movie franchise, finding and producing the next Bond script, and expanding the 007 universe with other film and TV projects.

The original Bond, Sean Connery.

A licence to shill, you might say, or indeed a licence to kill, depending on how much of a traditionalist you are.

Gender-bending Bonds are an obvious idea that will inevitably come to the table. And while the movie-Bond might remain male and British in origin, there is no reason why a TV-Bond or a non-franchise movie-Bond couldn’t flip that script.

Paramount has set Star Trek films and TV series in different time periods: the “original series”, the “Next Generation”, Star Trek: Discovery’s 30th century, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds′ 22nd. Even Doctor Who had a movie time lord, played by Peter Cushing, whose films were unconnected to the original TV series.

There are also no limitations on how to spin the world around. Intelligence service chief M – played in various films by Bernard Lee, Robert Brown, Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes – could get his (or her) own TV series. The same for M’s assistant Moneypenny, gadget whiz Q, or indeed the many Bond villains: Hugo Drax, Dr Julius No, Auric Goldfinger, Blofeld and more. How many times can you spell the words “origin story”?

Will Bond remain a man? Will he remain British?

The answer those questions, at this point, is almost certainly yes. Transitional eras are tough on cultural brands – just ask Star Wars who, after almost six years, still can’t get the next movie out the door. Amazon’s first message to the market is likely to be “business as usual”.

Roger Moore and Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me.Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Daily Mail reported on an Amazon internal memo stipulating the spy “will not change gender or nationality”. That means James Bond is still James Bond – though Jamie Bond: High School Spyette remains an intriguing idea – and that Bond, wherever he comes from, will remain quintessentially British.

That probably rules out an American, but could a Canadian or Australian actor sneak over the line? It’s a possibility, if a slightly off-piste one.

What’s on the line?

That really comes down to the difference between Amazon’s ambition and the audience’s willingness to come along and join the party. Another major Amazon IP acquisition, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, required a similar leap of faith but has met with mixed success.

Amazon bought the rights to the universe of JRR Tolkien’s books and turned to JD Payne and Patrick McKay to bring it to life. The co-writer/show-runners stepped back into the “second age” of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth, partly to mine a new story but also to stay away, to a point, from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

At 46, Roger Moore was the oldest Bond ever hired, but played 007 for 12 years from 1973’s Live and Let Die to 1985’s A View to a Kill.Credit: AP

Some fans love it, some fans don’t, and sometimes it’s hard to work out the reality when you know some of the arguments come from shrill superfans who are fighting fringe culture wars when, in truth, even Tolkien himself was not opposed to the idea of other writers finding new stories in his very old world.

Who will play James Bond?

That’s a great question. Hollywood has thrived on the many answers to it for decades. Rex Harrison might have been Bond, but Sean Connery beat him to the part. Terence Stamp was considered for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service until Albert Broccoli purportedly spotted Australian George Lazenby in a Turkish Delight commercial. Oliver Reed was a contender too, but he came with too much bad PR.

Pierce Brosnan was almost cast as Bond in The Living Daylights, but Eon refused to let him do both the TV series Remington Steele and a Bond movie, so it went to Timothy Dalton. Brosnan would get his moment, though, and reinvented Bond for the ’90s with GoldenEye. Mel Gibson and Andrew Clarke were purportedly also in the mix but passed over by Broccoli because they were Australian – Broccoli was less than thrilled with George Lazenby’s 007.

Who’s on the current shortlist? The answer to that question is really one of mathematics rather than taste. Between 12 and 20 years – roughly – is the working window of a Bond actor. Sean Connery, for example, made seven films across 21 years (if you include the non-Eon-produced Never Say Never Again). Roger Moore made seven films in 12 years, from 1973 to 1985. Daniel Craig, the most recent 007, made five films across 15 years.

The James Bond movies are part of MGM.Credit:

Idris Elba and Tom Hardy have both been persistently named as contenders for Bond. But at 52 and 47, respectively, both have probably aged out of the franchise. If either signed on now, they could be playing Bond well into their 60s. Even at the age of 44, Sam Heughan and Tom Hiddleston might be too old.

The ideal age range for a new Bond would be under 40, which puts Henry Cavill, Chris Hemsworth and Aidan Turner (all 41) on the edge, Richard Madden (38) and Regé-Jean Page (37) right in the target range, and Paul Mescal (29) on the lower end of the spectrum.

So how weird could things get?

Weird. It goes without saying that the only people who should never be left alone with the keys to any IP are a group of revenue-hungry executives. After all, these are the types who thought Little Fockers (2010), Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005), Son of the Mask (2005) and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015) were worth making.

Hollywood, too, is not above trashing a franchise – stand up Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) and Batman & Robin (1997) – or rubbishing the legacy of a classic: Caddyshack II (1988), The Birds II: Land’s End (1994) and The Sting II (1983). Give me strength.

But, handled correctly, brand Bond could be unfurled into a magnificent franchise. A shiny new James and a shiny new car for him to drive, plus the right balance of prequels and sequels, could create a universe where Bond, M, Moneypenny and Dr No change faces with the elegant regularity of Doctor Who.

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