In a press release issued on October 30, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) have announced that they have selected the Producers of the James Bond movie franchise, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, to be recipients of the prestigious 2014 David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures.
The special Award will be presented to the popular EON brother-and-sister duo at the 25th Annual Producers Awards ceremony on January 19, 2014, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
PGA Awards co-chairs Lori McCreary and Michael De Luca told the media: ‘Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are the driving force behind one of the most cherished franchises in the history of film’.
The PGA also pointed out that EON’s latest James Bond adventure, Skyfall, the 23rd 007 movie in the 50-year old franchise, and Daniel Craig’s third time in the role, topped an amazing $1 billion in worldwide grosses earlier this year.
The Selznick trophy recognizes a Producer’s body of work in motion pictures, and previous recipients have included Stanley Kramer, Saul Zaentz, Clint Eastwood, Billy Wilder, Brian Grazer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Roger Corman, Laura Ziskin, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, and Steven Spielberg. The most recent honourees were Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
Michael G. Wilson, half-brother to Barbara, began working at EON in 1972, while Barbara Broccoli, the daughter of the original 007 Producer Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, started working at EON Productions in 1977, at the age of 17. Both have strong reputations in the film business as very hard-working and ‘hands-on’ Producers, and both have also managed to run EON very much as a ‘family’ concern, carrying on the tradition established by their father, Cubby.
In more recent years, their highly successful producing talents have not only helped push the 007 franchise to yet more box-office records, but have also been turned increasingly to wider non-Bond projects. As the JBIFC reported last May, Barbara Broccoli has said they are interested in branching out even further into new non-Bond film, stage and documentary productions. Their most recent film project is The Silent Storm, starring Damian Lewis and Andrea Riseborough.
However, while they have both commented on the sheer challenge of how they will ever top the spectacular global success of Skyfall, they also remain firmly committed to further James Bond movies, with Bond 24 due to commence production in 2014, with Sam Mendes back as director.
Interestingly, Wilson, interviewed at the Jameson Empire Awards in April, 2013, made it very clear that he still very much enjoys his role as Producer on the James Bond movies. He said his job was ‘thrilling, it’s a great job’ and ‘wonderful’.
Note: David O. Selznick (1902-1965) was an American film producer best known for producing Gone With the Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), The Third Man (1949), and A Farewell to Arms (1957). In 2004, he was given a posthumous star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.