It cost Amazon MGM Studios around $1 billion to get Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, longtime stewards of the James Bond franchise, to cede creative oversight of the franchise after more than six decades in their family, sources tell Deadline.
Thursday's deal stunned the industry, but then again it was three years in the making. In 2022, MGM was absorbed by Amazon for $8.5 billion, with distribution rights to the Bond franchise one element cited as justification for the hefty acquisition cost. However, Amazon couldn’t fully freely develop Bond with Broccoli and Wilson still at the creative helm. Any spinoffs, series or reboots of Ian Fleming's storied superspy would have to run through them.
Broccoli had resisted Amazon’s desire to expand the Bond franchise into its own universe akin to Marvel or Star Wars. Broccoli and Wilson, children of legendary 007 producer Albert R. Broccoli, always held the line on quality control when it came to the British spy, keeping the series as a stand-alone, big-screen-only brand.
Amazon can now proceed in extending the life of Bond. That includes a slew of Bond villains and women in their own series or features. And the Bond deal follows news that the studio has started building out an international theatrical distribution arm, which would aim to maximize the revenue potential of the Bond-verse.
The hard work in the immediate future involves choosing the right executive to steer Bond in Kevin Feige-like fashion at Amazon MGM Studios. Meanwhile, cynicism about the new chapter abounds around town. >>>New Bond For A New Generation
Related:
Barbara Broccoli’s Close-Knit Circle Says Hearing 007 Deal News Was “As If There Had Been A Death In The Family”
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On the Radar
Sun - SAG Awards; London TV Screenings begins
Tues - AMC Entertainment earnings
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