It happened: Amazon takes over the creative control of the James Bond films. This ends the decades of care by the producer: Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. From now on, the Amazon MGM Studios can decide for themselves who is playing Bond, when which script is filmed and how from the James Bond films one Multimedia content machine should arise.
Some may be happy about shorter waiting times between the films, but this message is for me as a bond and film fan Reason for concern.
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In May 2021, Amazon announced the takeover of the traditional MGM studios and thus also that of the Kronjuwel James Bond. But not just that, but still under the control of the traditional producer: Inner family of Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. These were not very enthusiastic about the new owners. These quarrels between the producers and Amazon must have gotten away over the past few years. Broccoli referred to the Amazon team as “Damned idiots” And would like to quote her father, who in front of her the creative rights to the James Bond films: “Let temporary people not make permanent decisions”.
But that is exactly the case: Permanent decision -makers have now become of supposedly temporary right -handers: inside. The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is said to have fed up the snout according to the recent quarrels and instructed his team with a set that only Bond Bösewichen would otherwise give: “No matter what it costs, it will [Barbara Broccoli] go “. Alone under Amazon’s control and without the previous production duo, James Bond could lose his cinematic essence. There are three reasons.
Reason 1: James Bond takes time
The comparatively slow production pace between the Bond films is known. Until the reboot Casino Royale with Daniel Craig passed for four years. Between Specter and no time to die, the penultimate and last bond film, passed for six years. Broccoli insisted on a theatrical release of the film and accepted a whole year during the pandemic. In the meantime, four years have passed and a new main actor or a new script is still a long time coming. In short: There was hardly any time pressure for the producersto bring a new bond to the cinema. It was always much more important that the films were planned carefully, in detail and worked out with great attention to detail.
In his podcast The Town, Hollywood expert Matt Belloni tells the anecdote about the theatrical release of Casino Royale. Producer Broccoli and Sony’s distribution could initially not agree whether James Bond should appear on the film poster with an open fly on the shirt. This may sound like a small -scale pea counting, but illustrates how carefully and with what look these films were produced. It can of course take time for a new bond film to be planned in all its facets and is finished. But it is precisely this care that has made every Bond film a real event so far. This threatens to disappear under the leadership of Amazon.
If we now get to see films produced faster in the cinema, the former event quickly becomes an ordinary permanent condition for fans.
Reason 2: James Bond belongs to the cinema
But that’s not all. Amazon will certainly not stop bringing Bond to the big canvas more often. A modern expansion of the film series into a multimedia content apparatus would be conceivable. Every two years a new film, in between own offspring of characters around James Bond, probably still garnished with TV series from the world of 007 for your own Prime video streaming service. The John-Wick series is showing us where the journey could go. This would increase the returns of the Amazon investors at short notice, but would not do justice to the core of James Bond in the long term.
The bond figure needs the special stories and inserts as much as we need them as a viewer. If we are constantly confronted with shine, glamor, fast cars, beautiful people and global threats everywhere, everything will quickly become arbitrary. The special needs a break to missto stay special. When Amazon spans the bow, a similar collapse that we can currently see in other formerly large film series threatens.
Reason 3: Disney and Marvel show what Amazon has to avoid
If Amazon now drives up the machinery and degrades the KronJuwel James Bond to any content, a similar development is threatened with Star Wars directed by Disney. There has been impressively showed what has made too quick production from a once special film series. Paired with To many spin-offs It has become a dusty content lump from the glamorous universe of Star Wars. The result: Star Wars has disappeared from the cinema since 2019 and has a existence as a pure TV universe on Disney Plus.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe also seems to have spanned the sheet of the audience, because the films recently remained financially behind the expectations. The result: less, but better movies should bring the audience back in the future. With the TV series, the studio is now also pressing on the brakes and giving the audience more time between the productions. So it shows that the formula of “more = better” does not always open. What applies to Star Wars and Marvel should also be an important lesson for James Bond.
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So if the Amazon Studios team gets to work with a similar care as Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the Bond films remain a special cinema event and the studio is not only interested in the return, but also thinks of the audience, Bond fans are facing exciting times.
By the way, I would have a specific proposal for Amazon to take fans all worries: wait until Christopher Nolanwho is currently shooting the Odyssey, has time again. That would be more than just a quantum comfort for all Bond fans.