The household that controls the James Bond film franchise reportedly refuses to provide Amazon the go-ahead to make one other movie as a consequence of critical disagreements over the path of the collection — together with one proposal for a TV spinoff centered on a feminine 007.
Barbara Broccoli — the 64-year-old daughter of the late Queens native Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the movie producer who acquired the rights to the famed spy created by British novelist Ian Fleming — has been at odds with Amazon execs ever because the e-retail big acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio for $8.5 billion in March 2022, in keeping with the Wall Avenue Journal.
Her dissatisfaction with Amazon has reached the purpose the place she is prepared to carry the movie “hostage” and delay the discharge of a brand new Bond sequel, the Journal reported.
“These people are f–king idiots,” Broccoli reportedly advised mates when describing executives at Amazon.
There hasn’t been a Bond movie in three years, one of many longest dry spells because the franchise was launched with “Dr. No” in 1962.
Broccoli maintains an iron grip on 007, approving all the pieces from scripts to who would be the subsequent Bond after Daniel Craig hung up the famed tuxedo within the final movie, “No Time to Die.”
Amazon executives have proposed a variety of concepts to money in on the Bond model for its Prime Video service, together with a derivative that includes Miss Moneypenny, the secretary of MI6 spy chief M.
There was even speak of casting a feminine to play the subsequent 007, in addition to extra various choices that would come with homosexual or black main males.
Broccoli shot down the concept of a feminine Bond, although she’s not against having a homosexual or nonwhite actor star within the position, in keeping with the Journal.
She does insist that whoever fills his footwear is a Brit.
Broccoli runs Eon Productions, the London-based store that produces the Bond movies, alongside her 82-year-old stepbrother Michael Wilson.
The connection between the Broccoli household and Amazon is a conflict of two worlds — one rooted in old-school, twentieth century film-making “from the gut” whereas the opposite is steeped in tech-centric reliance on algorithms and streaming statistics, in keeping with the Journal.
Broccoli and Wilson are additionally stated to be upset that they’ve had a troublesome time touchdown a gathering with senior Amazon executives — a far cry from the times when MGM head honchos had been readily accessible to them, in keeping with the Journal.
The Submit has sought remark from Eon and Amazon.
Broccoli is reported to have a tense relationship with Jennifer Salke, a former NBCUniversal government who was introduced in to run Amazon Studios in 2018.
In accordance with the Journal, Broccoli was irked when Salke referred to the James Bond collection as “content” that the corporate needed to supply the general public.
A good friend of Broccoli’s advised the Journal that utilizing a sterile time period reminiscent of “content” was like a “death knell” to her since she views Bond as a sacred household heirloom.
Since Amazon purchased MGM, the corporate has produced only one Bond-related product — a actuality tv present titled “007: Road to a Million” the place groups compete in spy-themed challenges.
The present has prompted dialogue inside Amazon about Bond and its place in fashionable society.
A male spy who makes use of violence to attain his goals whereas being a womanizer is outwardly an excessive amount of for some Amazon workers, one in every of which is reported to have stated throughout a technique assembly: “I have to be honest. I don’t think James Bond is a hero.”
Mike Hopkins, who heads the Prime Video enterprise, has reportedly advised associates he’s assured he can win Broccoli’s belief.
