It’s very much like what you’d find if you trawled the fan fora for what they expect will happen now.
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I don’t know, the idea kind of make sense. Even before the major news yesterday, the powers-that-be in the Bond universe seemed to be done with the Bond character and wanting to shift the focus to Moneypenny and Q.
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Here’s my big concern right now. I’ve seen some breakdowns of what happened with Star Wars under Disney. One of the big issues was that, having paid $4 billion, Disney was very keen to start making returns on their investment. This led to Force Awakens being something of a rush job without ample time to get the script right.
The parallels are here already, with Amazon just spending $1 billion to gain full creative control (on top of the $9 billion they paid for MGM). And that’s before they’ve spent anything on the production of a single film. They’ll need multiple cinematic Bond films to recoup that money, and something tells me they aren’t going to want to wait that long. This means they’ll probably start rushing out films and grinding out content, which is not conducive to quality.
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Idris tied to Apple
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I said ages ago here, that NTTD felt like a goodbye from Broccoli. I think it makes sense to use intransigence as a bargaining tool to get the best exit possible.
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I think we would all have been a lot happier , had they sold their share to Apple over Amazon.
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Problem with Apple is, their aim is totally and tonally different from a blockbuster tentpole production. They want to produce quality streaming and put relatively little effort into advertising and promotion.
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The way I see it Killers of the flower moon , Napoleon and Argylle were all blockbusters.
The thing with Apple is they’ve got a very good track record in terms of quality far above what Amazon has
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The social media mumbling would not have meant anything in the EON years, but now it will be a deciding factor (as it is for casting already - the number of followers trumps acting quality).
According to that growing noise we will see Henry Cavill announced as Bond within this year.
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I could live with that announcement as an initial stop-gap to get the ball rolling. That said, Cavill’s got the Highlander reboot and a slew of other projects on his plate right now, so I don’t think that’s the way it will go unless he’s willing to clear his schedule. But I could see Amazon seeing him as a safe bet and a known commodity short term.
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If they knock at his door he will drop everything and say yes to Bond.
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Yes, I think Highlander is the only thing he has any fealty toward at the moment. And let’s face it, he’d be a fool to turn it down. With Amazon behind him, they could easily crank out a film every 2 years and give us a solid 4-5 film run to launch everything before he’s genuinely “too old” to continue.
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Could be. But wait until the coordinated campaigns of other contenders kick in, that might give another picture.
As for Apple’s blockbusters, I admit that KILLERS and NAPOLEON are both prestige productions with outstanding production values by master directors. Also Oscar bait as the nominations for both these can attest to. But in terms of box office KILLERS made about $ 160m and NAPOLEON $ 220m both of which seems meagre for a blockbuster.
Then again, they were made by a streamer for their portfolio, so the theatrical release was always going to be secondary. We simply cannot, in our day and age, set the same standards on blockbusting we did 10 or 15 years ago. Perhaps these films are ‘streambusters’ now.
We could certainly see a Bond film released in a similar manner - but it would differ significantly from what we’ve come to expect and are used to when thinking about releasing a Bond film. I’d still suggest Apple’s strong sleeve is the long run and their catalogue shows how they consistently build up a variety of excellent stuff - that is at its core low key and not particularly given to action, stunts and CGI.
But it would perhaps have been interesting to watch how they approach a Bond film.
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Apple.tv does not seem be interested in a wide and longer cinema distribution - and in contrast to Amazon they rely on others to distribute movies only if it´s absolutely wished for by the filmmakers. Their “content” is supposed to drive their streaming section.
They do allow high profile filmmakers and producers much more lenience than the other streamers, however. So that could have been an ideal partnership with EON.
But all that’s just speculation. Amazon owns Bond, EON has stepped back.
I do believe that Amazon knows how difficult it will be to set up not just one good Bond film but a whole new era.
Then again, only us hardcore fans really care about the nature of these upcoming films. For the major part of the audience it will be enough to have a good looking guy in a tux, outrageous stunts and some funny one-liners.
That’s why the casting will be the biggest indicator as to where Amazon will aim with the new Bond films.
I predict they will not choose a surprising, rather unknown actor but go with the most “typical” candidate. And while Cavill is certainly much older than they would prefer, he would be the guy with tons of followers who are still bitter that he was not chosen by Gunn to remain Superman.
That is one good will base Amazon will love to tap into, especially in these times of “we’re taking over again!”-bravado.
Now I don’t dislike Cavill completely. His audition tape is like any audition tape not the ideal showcase for what he would do as Bond. But so far, his acting range in other roles, even as Superman, was limited. I have never seen him in something which made me think: yes, that guy can do drama and comedy. He is a good looking dude, has that taciturn smirk or that concerned stare, but somehow he always comes across the way Stromberg has pointed out so well.
But we’re not in EON country anymore. The new directive will only be about mass compatible selling points.
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I was in shock when I heard about this, as we’re now entering completely uncharted territory for 007. But I can’t say I was really suprised. The series hasn’t been going anywhere in recent years. After SP instead of doing what the series would’ve done in the past, moving on and looking ahead, they sat around and waited for Craig, putting the actor’s interest above the series’, and essentially leaving the series at a dead end with NTTD. Then nothing happening. I was kind of suprised by the amount of people who still had this optimism that things could just go back to business as usual with EON. Something had clearly changed.
Barbara Broccoli didn’t seem to have the passion for it anymore, at least not beyond Craig. I always get the impression that Michael Wilson was more of the driving force to always keep the series going at a regular pace, but with him taking a few steps back there clearly was a lack of drive to keep things moving unlike there had been in the past. So yes, they clearly weren’t going to move the series into the future.
Does that mean I’m happy Amazon MGM now got the creative control? Not necessarily. Like many, James Bond movies being crafted by this family business is always something that made it special. And I would’ve loved to see that continue. But since there really wasn’t any movement within EON it seems this option wasn’t on the table. I will be forever grateful for Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. Despite my criticism of the Craig era, they still did an overall fantastic job keeping the franchise going as producers. They continued to make amazing movies in the post Cubby era. Some like GE, TWINE and CR are top 10 Bond movies to me. GE even being the film that introduced me to the series and made Bond such a big thing in my life.
I’m going in with a completely open mind. From what I’ve heard, Amazon does take a great deal of interest in fan interaction. And since most fans just want to have a good movie on the screen every 2/3 years that stays true to the core of the character and the series, I really hope they will give the people what they want so to speak.
Yes, I’m very afraid it will turn into something like Disney Star Wars. Everytime I think of what Star Wars used to be and what I loved about it in the Lucas era and what it became, I become really anxious imagining what could happen to Bond. But to be fair, a lot of these franchises (Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek to name a few) are completely different from the Bond series. Because unlike many other series, the James Bond films are about one character. And I hope that means it will just be limited to cinematic releases, maybe a video game here and there and some merchandise. That would really be the ideal scenario. Maybe adapting some of the continuation novels would be really great. And just put the right people there to lead the franchise forward. People who understand Bond and what makes these films so unique, writers that have read the novels. And one important thing, don’t just make every movie too similar in terms of tone, style, look. But keep that variety as the series has always had.
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Have never heard that, actually. What do you mean?
That has never been the case, and especially not during the Craig era.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they pick Cavill. A relatively safe choice to the general public.
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Honestly I don’t know too much about Amazon to tell either, so I have no idea how true this actually is. I’m just going by what I’ve heard from people I spoke to and people who seem to know a bit more about Amazon than I do and I heard this a lot especially. It’s certainly one of the hopes I have. I guess compared to EON a lot could be considered more open fan interaction as they have traditionally been a company who keeps things a bit of a mystery, maybe even a bit disconnected with the core fanbase, especially in recent times compared to other franchises who have their comic cons and stuff like that. Not saying that is necessarily bad, but I’m just curious if Amazon will be a bit more transparant than that so to speak. But again, I’m keeping a completely open mind about the whole thing. I really don’t know what to expect.
Sorry for me misunderstanding, but do you mean movies being too similar or not being too similar? I could see an argument for both during the Craig era. In terms of narrative, I feel that it constantly tried to tell the becoming Bond narrative from CR (Bond going rogue, Bond quitting, tragic loss, Bond ready to get back to work in the end), a narrative that in my opinion is not something you can build the series on. But in terms of look and style they certainly did feel different from one another. And something I’ve always liked in the Bond series is the variety, having an OHMSS after YOLT, having TSWLM after TMWTGG, having FYEO after MR, having CR after DAD. Having essentially a comedy like DAF and a very serious gritty adventure like QOS existing within the same series. That’s what I’ve always loved about the series.
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What I want now is to take everything full circle and have EON take their $1 billion and their remaining rights and make a competing Bond film.
Perhaps a remake of Thunderball.
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Never Say Never Thunderball Again
Starring Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton for one last mission.
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