It literally sounds like a James Bond plot itself.
Imagine: The British super spy’s beloved MI6 gets taken over by a deep-pocketed benefactor who looks suspiciously like Lex Luthor (seriously, Jeff Bezos was made to be a Superman villain, comical foibles and all), who’s promising to keep the prior leadership in place — only to usurp the controlling power that actually matters.
Now, you don’t even have to imagine it.
In a Hollywood shocker, Amazon MGM Studios has taken complete creative control of the James Bond franchise, as Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli — best described by Variety as “the long-time producers and custodians of 007” — take a step back.
Calling this development “historic,” Variety added that “Amazon MGM Studios, Wilson and Broccoli have formed a new joint venture to house the James Bond intellectual property rights.”
While Wilson and Broccoli will remain co-owners of the franchise, creative control will rest solely with Bezos and Amazon Studios.
And for many fans of the beloved James Bond franchise (the reports about the next Bond actor should get very interesting with Amazon now in full control), there’s plenty of cause for concern.
And that concern mainly has to do with how good of a steward Amazon has been to its various intellectual properties.
In short: The track record isn’t good.
Take, for instance, the Amazon Prime series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
One would assume that having the rights to such a vast, deep, and beloved franchise would be a slam dunk of a streaming series to produce. Monsters, magic, good versus evil … it’s all stuff ripe for a television adaptation.
Instead, the showrunners insisted on injecting modernity into J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic work, yielding a deeply polarizing show that has drawn the ire of everyday viewers and Elon Musk, alike.
The show, which doesn’t adhere particularly closely to Tolkien’s work, has been lambasted for everything from forced leftism to nonsense plot holes.
Now, if it was only “The Lord of the Rings” that Amazon Studios had butchered, perhaps fans of James Bond walk into this new hierarchy with optimistic trepidation.
But Amazon has a spotty track record even when shows get off to smash starts, unlike “The Rings of Power.”
Gritty adult superhero shows “The Boys” and “Invincible” are two of Amazon Studios’ most popular properties. And this writer has seen and enjoyed the early offerings of both. But it’s becoming clear that Amazon struggles with sustained quality.
“The Boys” kicked off as a raunchy, bloody and funny alternative to the mass produced superhero dreck from studios like Marvel. After the second season, the show’s quality swiftly dipped as the showrunners seemed more interested in adapting real-life Donald Trump storylines for “The Boys” instead of telling a coherent story.
“Invincible,” an animated show, suffers from a similar outcome where the show begins to meander aimlessly after a tight early story arc.
Even the generally lauded “Fallout,” an Amazon Studios adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name, saw some quality drop issues as the season bore on. (It’s still a mighty fine show — for now — for those interested.)
And make no mistake: Amazon MGM will be exerting that full creative control, given they ponied up for it.
As Deadline noted, the studio paid an extra billion dollars to usurp that creative power, which is no small cost, even for a mega-billionaire like Bezos.
(Okay, fine, a billion dollars is probably a clerical rounding error for Bezos, but you get the point.)
From all indications, this historic deal is set in stone, and James Bond has new handlers.
It’s just a shame there’s so much evidence to suggest his handlers don’t know what they’re doing.
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