Amazon acquired MGM in a $8.45 billion deal earlier this year, but don’t expect to see the studio’s most famous character on Amazon Prime Video any time soon. Unless you rent On Her Majesty’s Secret Service on the streaming service. Then you can.
“We make films. We make films for the cinema. That’s what we do,” long-time James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli told Total Film when asked about a 007 television show. Her co-producer Michael B. Wilson added, “We’ve resisted that call for 60 years.” That’s a definitive (Dr.) no to a Bond series, which spares us from the inevitable spinoffs: Breaking Bond, Bond Babies, and so on. John Logan, for one, is relieved.
The Skyfall and Spectre writer penned an op-ed for the New York Times following the Amazon acquisition, which gave him the “chills.” He wrote, “The current deal with Amazon gives Barbara and Michael, who own 50 percent of the Bond empire, ironclad assurances of continued artistic control. But will this always be the case? What happens if a bruising corporation like Amazon begins to demand a voice in the process? What happens to the comradeship and quality control if there’s an Amazonian overlord with analytics parsing every decision? What happens when focus groups report they don’t like Bond drinking martinis? Or killing quite so many people? And that English accent’s a bit alienating, so could we have more Americans in the story for marketability?”
At least Bond has already gone to space — that’s one Jeff Bezos intervention you don’t have to worry about. No Time to Die opens (IN THEATERS ONLY) on October 8.
(Via Total Film)
