James Bond IP bought out by Amazon

[al_infierno]

For anyone unaware, Barbara Broccoli is the daughter(?) of Albert Broccoli, producer for many Bond films. She had creative control over the IP and, much like Christopher Tolkien, was very deliberate about not diluting her father's work and letting anyone milk it dry. Apparently Amazon approached her with a "Miss Moneypenny" spinoff series, which she declined.

Great news for Broccoli though, Amazon upped their offer to one billion dollars!  She will no doubt end up with more money than she can ever spend even after getting hit with taxes.  Not so great news for the rest of us consumers though, who can expect Bond to soon get the Rings of Power treatment.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/amazon-007-takeover-impact-future-james-bond-1236155844/

The Wall Street Journal published a piece detailing the chilly state of affairs between Amazon and the Broccolis in which Barbara is quoted as telling friends that Amazon executives were "fucking idiots." Not surprisingly, those choice words did not go over well with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "He read her quote in the Journal and got on the phone and said, 'I don't care what it costs, get rid of her,' " is how one insider describes what happened, confirming that what Bezos ended up paying for the franchise was close to a billion dollars.

For that kind of money, Broccoli and Wilson must have decided, other people can screw it up all they want.

[JasonPratt]

Yes, she's the daughter. Former producer Michael Wilson is a son-in-law.

I very much recommend "Some Kind of Hero", a history of the Bond novels and films up through the start of pre-production on what would be the finale (for now) "No Time to Die". Among other things it illuminates just how much of a family business the Bond films have been, mostly under Broccoli management, but also teamed up with the Salzman family (for a while).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RZWQHR5

That's the kindle edition, but there are hardback and paperback editions, too. I read it last year while taking Mom through the film series which she had only seen bits and pieces of before.

[Destraex]

How does this keep happening. James Bond is dead. Leave it alone.
1 billion dollars to no doubt produce another horrible iteration of a franchise already killed by modern movie makers and their cookie cutter money printing machine.

[Redwolf]

After the rings of power disaster I have a bad feeling about this.

But then I didn't like Daniel Craig's versions that much either.

[JasonPratt]

After the rings of power disaster I have a bad feeling about this.

And AmaWoT. {shudder} Season 3 is on the verge of releasing, and Amazon is trying REALLY REALLY HARD to convince potential viewers that this will be like the books seriously for real this time! But it cannot be a faithful adaptation without changing a ton of things already baked into the first two seasons, so fans who reject the first seasons will continue to nope out, and new viewers being sold on the book property (if they haven't done due diligence) will likely feel betrayed. Added to which Amazon has already ponied up for WoT prequels (plural!) which the showrunner has already declared will have nothing to do with the books, i.e. even less so than they do already, no doubt finally freeing him to do whatever he/she/they want without any restrictions for the sake of marketing the skin suit being worn. Samples of such distorted fan-ficcing already given in Seasons 1 and 2 (and 3 to come).

I'm much less invested in any level of faithfulness for the Bond property -- I enjoy all the Saltzman/Broccoli films to some degree despite massive deviations, even all the Craig entries -- and I still have zero trust in the quality of AmaBond. I'll be glad to be wrong!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

That Treadstone series based on the Bourne novels wasn't too bad.  Maybe there's hope. 

[JasonPratt]

Orly! I'll check into that, thanks!