Amazon has paid $1bn for “creative control” of the James Bond franchise, the Guardian understands, in a deal that has met with a mixed response from stars of the films.
Amazon MGM Studios said on Thursday it had struck a deal with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the British-American heirs to the film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and longtime stewards of the Bond films.
The world’s second largest corporation, by revenue, confirmed it had formed a joint venture with the duo to house the James Bond intellectual property, with Amazon assuming “creative control”.
While Amazon said the financial terms were for their eyes only, it is understood that control of 007 was ceded for about $1bn, a figure first reported by the US Hollywood news oulet Deadline.
Daniel Craig, the most recent man to play Bond, offered his congratulations on Friday to Broccoli and Wilson. Craig, who first appeared in Casino Royale in 2006, said: “My respect, admiration and love for Barbara and Michael remain constant and undiminished.
“I wish Michael a long, relaxing (and well-deserved) retirement, and whatever ventures Barbara goes on to do, I know they will be spectacular and I hope I can be part of them.”
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However, the actor Valerie Leon, a former “Bond girl”, raised concerns on Friday that 007 would not be British any more if Amazon was calling the shots.
Leon, 81, featured in the films The Spy Who Loved Me and Never Say Never Again, alongside Sir Roger Moore and Sir Sean Connery. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that it does not worry her as “life changes and everything moves on and changes”.
She added: “The Bond franchise was very British and it won’t be any more. And, obviously, if they make films they won’t go into the cinema … everything is so changed now, it just won’t be the same and I’m very old-fashioned anyway.”
With creative control, Amazon will have the power to move forward with new films and potentially TV spin-offs too, without approval from Wilson and Broccoli, who have overseen the integrity of the character originally created in 1953 by the author Ian Fleming.
It has been four years since the 2021 release of No Time To Die and with no new Bond film in production, the current hiatus is on course to become 007’s longest ever holiday.
