Will Amazon’s 007 franchise ever take center stage again?
Thinking about this, I flashed back to a conversation with an actor friend telling me, “I’ve just been offered a big payday as the next James Bond but I can’t get over the feeling that his every line has been said before – and maybe better.”
I was talking with John Gavin who, instead of replacing Sean Connery, opted for a lower salary as Ambassador to Mexico. “Does the world really need another Bond?” he asked.
I thought of Gavin this week because his 1983 question is again being bandied about at all-powerful Amazon, which has seized control of the franchise after the 60-year reign of the Broccoli dynasty. Bond has endured 25 iterations grossing a total of $7.8 billion worldwide, with its last title three years ago appropriately titled No Time to Die.
Jeff Bezos is publicly asking “Who will be the next Bond?” but Gavin had another question: Have Bond movies become somewhat old and British, their sexuality geriatric and their martinis over-stirred?
Coincidentally I’ve personally known almost all of history’s Bond actors and observed them coping with these questions. Roger Moore, always charming, was semi-adept as a tennis partner but felt miscast for mayhem. Pierce Brosnan’s impeccable manners arguably were better attuned to a casino than to combat.
Sean Connery admired Barbara Broccoli’s producing skills but urgently resented the way she sliced the profits on merchandise and Bond paraphernalia. Connery once bought me a lavish dinner, asking me to break the news that he had resolutely quit the Bond business to return to the theater. “Is that true?” I asked him.
“Of course not, but you’ll help my bargaining position.”
He stayed for one more Bond, better paid.
Broccoli and her producing partner, her half-brother Michael G, Wilson, fiercely fought off takeover attempts through the years, but their casting and story structures were not consistently as inspired as their negotiating skills. The franchise ran aground in the early ‘80s with the awkwardly titled Octopussydistributed by United Artists.
Perched atop the UA hierarchy at the time, I signed the Octopussy greenlight documents, after first sitting through the obligatory casting debates (a female Bond? a Black Bond?). I knew they were irrelevant because Broccoli had the final call and was bored by studio intervention, as was I.
My reason: I knew the dirty little secret that a superior Bond movie, Never Say Never Againwould be shooting at the same period as Octopussy. And that Connery would defect to star in it.
Directed by Irvin Kershner, Never was the only Bond movie made by a rival producer (Jack Schwartzman) and, in my view, was exceptionally well-crafted. It starred the dissident Connery, while Octopussywhich was about a Fabergé egg, starred Moore.
Everett
Connery lobbied for richer and more elaborate personal scenes to display his acting skills, as did Daniel Craig, the most recent Bond. In flirting with his offer, Gavin proposed a less British, more cosmopolitan milieu (his mother was Mexican).
The relevant question now, however, is not about casting but business strategy. How will the franchise remain distinctive if it floats amid currents of video games, streamers, theme park rides and immersive gizmos? Hollywood insiders believe the Star Wars legacy has been over exploited by this strategy.
“My life has been dedicated to building upon the extraordinary 007 legacy,” said Broccoli in her farewell speech. Broccoli loves the theater and has shown her producing talent, and Wilson is a dedicated art collector and benefactor.
Now Broccoli and Wilson will move on and key decisions will lie with Mike Hopkins, Amazon’s head of Prime Video and the MGM studio, who surely has his own road map. “There will be a next phase for the legendary 007 all over the world,” he declared.
And bountiful careers await Bond alumni. The never-Bond John Gavin delivered a strong performance as an ambassador. But unlike Connery, he never scored a cut of 007 profits.
