James Bond won millions in CR with a seven and a five in his hand. The clearly watch the wrong movies and don’t seem to understand that usually, life’s not a game of poker
Not entirely. If the buyer is a company with enough money who doesn’t need Bond as a cash cow, they simply can sit it out and force Eon to agree to things they don’t want, because else, nothing will be greenlit at all. Bond is their only asset, which was no big problem with a weak partner like MGM. But if MGM is bought by, say, Disney, they could starve Eon to death on a single outstretched arm.
Provided there isn’t a pandemic between your film being made and it being released which starves off both your main sources of income, but when is that likely to happen…
I’m not sure about that. To the best of our knowledge they have no expensive hobbies like fighting wars or staging up ‘Empire 2.0’ to keep Mail readers happy. They dabble a bit on the fringes of entertainment with the odd production, but these things seem at least to pay for their own rent.
Let’s imagine there just won’t be any Bond project in the 20s, and maybe not even until the late 30s - I don’t really see Ms Broccoli or her family starving. As far as I can tell they comfortably sat out several years (since 2002 at least) for the simple pleasure of making these films the way they want. Maybe they’d just be content and don’t move at all?
Sure, it would be dead capital, much like these artworks stored in warehousing-in-bond in TENET. But these things exist. And Eon doesn’t have to answer investor calls. They could probably keep Bond shelved a decade and still buy the Buckingham Palace without the public taking notice…
Yes, I imagine if Disney/Amazon/Apple/Netflix bought MGM there would be a certain expectation the acquisition shows signs of adding to their output in the not too distant future. None of these really needs Bond either - but why buy it if you’re not going to play with it?
If some CEO set his mind to get Bond under his control and then do, I don’t know, Playmobil-Bond, that would surely lead to a stalemate. And for a time said CEO would possibly have the backing of his investors. But if it’s not going to show signs of progress it would sooner or later look like a massive mis-investment.
PS: Thinking about it from that point maybe the perspective really is to keep Bond wrapped up and away from the public for a period to let the public appetite for a fresh series of films grow? I mean, you can hardly have NO TIME TO DIE finally released (by whichever means) and start your casting and preproduction as if there was a huge demand and impulse behind it.
I guess this would be the most sensible way to go anyway. Who knows when a Bond film can get financed again the way they are used to, with the risk of a new actor to tank?
Maybe if what is presented is a re-imagining of Bond on a deep level. Another introspective, agonized straight male with a drinking problem is not going pass muster.
Maybe we would have to take a look at how things will develop after the pandemic anyway. What kind of an atmosphere in societies will there be; how will work, travel, entertainment come out and what will hit the soft spot of the audience?
I have little doubt that Bond will be a good investment in the long run. But there will probably have to go some consideration into how the series can proceed and what shape the production will take in the future. As pointed out before, the tentpole production with a budget of a small country’s GDP is likely not a model for much longer. Can there be found alternative ways to create revenue from the franchise? And if so, which ones wouldn’t risk to cheapen the core product?
On Rotten Tomatoes, Godzilla v Kong has C+ reviews labelled as fresh. I’ve seen the movie, and it was harmless fun, but could there be some cheering going on to help bring people back to cinemas?
I think this is key. I do not believe that we are going to see the return of the pre-pandemic state (even more than moderately modified). Too much has happened (at least in the United States) over issues of inequality, race, sex for the new normal to be just a version of the old normal.
An interesting set of replies since I last posted, and a general consensus that if we are looking forward, it is the Bond 26 which which is more important. NTTD won’t lose any money - no Bond film does - pandemic or not it will recoup its investment - but where does the series go from here? Tom Cruise has been proactive in ensuring the continuation of his very contemporary zippy Mission: Impossible franchise even through lockdown. I see none of this advance thinking from EoN, who IMO appear to be drifting. They are waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen and the drawn out chaos [I use the word unwisely] surrounding NTTD and its release date only emphasises this.
I almost wish they’d thrown it to the wolves Covid or not and just had done with it.
I really like James Bond, but this is a wearisome escapade and is not being aided by unclear strategy. Maybe I expect too much…
The films were greenlit and planned before the pandemic - Cruise probably had no real choice but to push through.
EON has a finished film and an unclear situation with MGM. Do they have plans for the future? Of course. But they will not talk about it right now because it would not make any sense.
They have no other choice but waiting for things to happen, because there’s almost nothing they can make happen. Except of course bringing this movie out, do or die. And until now, the a decision to do that would have almost certainly resulted in “die” (for which, as we all know, there’s no time).
