drgriffen
Well-Known Member
Article in today's Times saying Amazon and Apple are looking at buying the Bond films distribution rights. In itself not a big deal, but later in the article they mention that Bond is ripe for expansion in a similar way to the Marvel Universe and Star Wars.
Not overly against films looking at the development of other characters etc........but not sure I'd want them on tv.
May be nonsense or just a flyer to guage reaction. Article below:
In the last 007 film made by the late Sir Roger Moore before he hung up his safari jacket, the villain, played by Christopher Walken, plotted to destroy Silicon Valley.
Now 32 years after A View To A Kill, the same valley is plotting to take over the Bond films — and possibly re-package the spy for television too.
Apple and Amazon appear to be strong contenders to muscle traditional Hollywood studios aside and buy the Bond film distribution rights. Such a deal would leave the entertainment industry both shaken and stirred.
Two former television moguls, newly arrived at Apple, are leading the company’s bidding effort to MGM, the studio that controls the rights to the films, with Eon Productions. Eon is a British-based, family-run company that has made all 24 Bond films so far, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The speed and zeal with which Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht have targeted the Bond franchise suggests that more than just the film rights may be up for grabs. MGM’s own stake could be involved, plus 007’s largely untapped TV and internet potential.
Amazon has been rapidly expanding its film and television production and streaming arm and won three Oscars in February. Its film efforts have so far focused on art house fare, so the Bond franchise would transform its presence.
Ian Fleming’s ruthless secret agent is viewed as a quintessentially British character but he was brought to the screen by an American and a Canadian — the producers Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Eon, run by Mr Broccoli’s daughter Barbara and his stepson Michael Wilson, remains the keeper of the Bond flame.
James Bond’s immediate future looks assured, however. MGM has recovered following bankruptcy and reorganisation in 2010 and Daniel Craig, the most commercially successful Bond, has signed for at least one more film.
Yet the character is seen as one of the last huge entertainment brands that could be exploited in the manner Disney pioneered with the Marvel comic characters and the Star Wars “universe”. The Bond franchise has global recognition, revenues of more than $14 billion and a cast of exotic characters ripe for revisiting in spin-offs.
“Bond feels really underdeveloped,” a source “familiar with the bidding process” for 007 told The Hollywood Reporter.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...illing-with-007-distribution-rights-x7rpzgnbl
Not overly against films looking at the development of other characters etc........but not sure I'd want them on tv.
May be nonsense or just a flyer to guage reaction. Article below:
In the last 007 film made by the late Sir Roger Moore before he hung up his safari jacket, the villain, played by Christopher Walken, plotted to destroy Silicon Valley.
Now 32 years after A View To A Kill, the same valley is plotting to take over the Bond films — and possibly re-package the spy for television too.
Apple and Amazon appear to be strong contenders to muscle traditional Hollywood studios aside and buy the Bond film distribution rights. Such a deal would leave the entertainment industry both shaken and stirred.
Two former television moguls, newly arrived at Apple, are leading the company’s bidding effort to MGM, the studio that controls the rights to the films, with Eon Productions. Eon is a British-based, family-run company that has made all 24 Bond films so far, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The speed and zeal with which Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht have targeted the Bond franchise suggests that more than just the film rights may be up for grabs. MGM’s own stake could be involved, plus 007’s largely untapped TV and internet potential.
Amazon has been rapidly expanding its film and television production and streaming arm and won three Oscars in February. Its film efforts have so far focused on art house fare, so the Bond franchise would transform its presence.
Ian Fleming’s ruthless secret agent is viewed as a quintessentially British character but he was brought to the screen by an American and a Canadian — the producers Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Eon, run by Mr Broccoli’s daughter Barbara and his stepson Michael Wilson, remains the keeper of the Bond flame.
James Bond’s immediate future looks assured, however. MGM has recovered following bankruptcy and reorganisation in 2010 and Daniel Craig, the most commercially successful Bond, has signed for at least one more film.
Yet the character is seen as one of the last huge entertainment brands that could be exploited in the manner Disney pioneered with the Marvel comic characters and the Star Wars “universe”. The Bond franchise has global recognition, revenues of more than $14 billion and a cast of exotic characters ripe for revisiting in spin-offs.
“Bond feels really underdeveloped,” a source “familiar with the bidding process” for 007 told The Hollywood Reporter.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...illing-with-007-distribution-rights-x7rpzgnbl
