Barbara Broccoli was interviewed for The Hollywood Reporter recently and emphasised that she and her EON co-proder brother Michael remain keen on keeping the Bond franchise as a cinematic experience.

In an interview and detailed profile published in the magazine on 7th December, entitled ‘Why Bond Mogul Barbara Broccoli Has earned a License to Chill’, the EON producer spoke from London to reporter Tatiana Siegel, who quizzed her about the possible implications for the James Bond series given the purchase of MGM by Amazon (Amazon agreed in May, 2021, to buy MGM for $8.45 billion, a takeover which will become ‘official’ in 2022).

There have been some suggestions that certain Amazon execs are eyeing up the Bond franchise for possible 007 spin-offs, similar to the Marvel franchise. The dangers of this, however, as the Marvel model is beginning to demonstrate, is that it can lead to an over-saturation of characters and the watering down of quality.

As Siegel noted, for nearly three decades Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson have controlled the 007 franchise, and Broccoli has remained steadfast in keeping the property from becoming diluted by TV series and film spin-offs. Broccoli commented: ‘Sure, there are other main characters like M and Q and all that. But we haven’t really wanted to make a Bond film without Bond. It would be like making Hamlet without Hamlet’.

Broccoli explained the approach behind her tried-and-tested family policy over the years: ‘We make theatrical films and go to great pains to make them as cinematic as possible. We have always worked with great directors and cinematographers and production designers who do their utmost to create a visual feast for people to enjoy. I think that’s what we intend to do, but things change, so who knows? Down the road, it may be different’.

She revealed that she had not spoken in any detail with Amazon yet, but had been told that Bond 26 will still be an MGM film, released via Amazon. The overall message from the interview appears to be that, as far as EON are concerned, it will be business as usual, and potential spin-offs are firmly ruled out for now (which will be a big relief for many Bond fans). Interestingly, on possible future directors for the 007 movies, Broccoli was full of praise for Cary Fukunaga. Although she does not know what his plans may be now that No Time To Die has become the 25th movie and Daniel Craig has bowed out, she said of Fukunaga: ‘We’d love to work with him again’.

 

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