By Andrew A. Rosen
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A surprise resolution emerged yesterday morning between Amazon and the Broccoli family—who have long controlled the rights to adapt Ian Fleming‘s 007 novels—ending a standoff that began with Amazon’s $6.5 billion acquisition of MGM Studios in 2022.
At its core, the dispute was “a clash between the 20th-century Hollywood of big screens and big swings and a new entertainment industry ruled by Silicon Valley firms that prize data, algorithms and streaming subscriptions.”
The Broccoli family refused to entrust their James Bond intellectual property (IP) to an “algorithm-centric Amazon”. A previous contractual agreement with MGM Studios promised only theatrical releases of Bond movies, and Amazon had agreed to honor it. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, that did not stop executives from suggesting new ideas:
“Would Amazon produce a James Bond TV show for its Prime Video service? What about a Moneypenny spinoff? Or a TV spinoff centered on a female 007?”
Broccoli reportedly regarded the substance of those questions as a “death knell” for the Bond franchise.
That all changed yesterday: The Broccolis will cede creative control to a new joint venture with Amazon MGM which will house the franchise’s IP rights. Amazon will now control who will play Bond, who will write the next script, and when the film goes into production.
What spurred this change? Those answers will likely emerge through the media over time.
A more important question is, what can this joint venture accomplish that neither the Broccolis or a traditional Hollywood studio could before? With generative artificial intelligence (AI) and internet distribution models reshaping the business of storytelling, the possibilities seem endless. It may be easiest to frame an analysis of the possibilities within the three areas of Amazon’s creative control.
[Author's Note: The data and analysis behind these predictions will be exclusive to members, only.]
The Bond franchise‘s future with Amazon MGM will be shaped less by the creative control of either Amazon or the Broccolis, and more by audiences’ desire to fund and/or create new stories across interactive, multi-format platforms
Total words: 1,400
Total time reading: 5 minutes
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