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What does the MGM takeover mean for the Bond franchise?
Amazon may have MGM – Bond is a long way from having it
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Amazon bought MGM – but did it make Her Majesty’s Spy exclusive? These and other questions – and the answers.
It’s official: Amazon is buying the MGM film studio for $ 8.45 billion. But what does that mean for the 4,000+ film titles that the studio owns? One thing is clear: It is unlikely that the extensive film library will soon be available to all Amazon Prime customers.
The “James Bond” brand in particular creates excitement, and not just on the screen. At $ 7 billion, it is the third-highest box office grossing film franchise of all time. Whether “Bond” can be streamed in the near future is in the stars despite the purchase of MGM: The last word here is the Broccoli-Wilson family. To be more precise, Barbara Broccoli, 60, and Michael G. Wilson, 79, whose film production company Eon Productions owns 50 percent of the Bond rights.
According to the New York Times, they have the final say on “every line of dialogue, casting, stunt scene, marketing product, TV ad, poster, and advertisement”. And of course also with regard to the films or a possible spin-off. Even with MGM there should have been hard fights with Eon for Bond. In short: Broccoli and Wilson will certainly not leave “their baby”, as they once called the Bond franchise, to Amazon. The new film “James Bond: No Time to Die”, the start of which had to be postponed several times due to the pandemic, will not premiere on Amazon Prime either. “It is our endeavor to continue to make ‘James Bond’ films for the global cinema audience,” the two explain to the US industry magazine “Variety” almost immediately after the deal news.
Intellectual property treasure trove
But MGM is more than “Bond”. Mike Hopkins, who is responsible for the streaming division Prime Video and Amazon Studios at Amazon, said in a statement that the “real financial value” of the takeover lies in the film library’s “intellectual property treasure chest”. And that Amazon wants to develop this further together with MGM.
There are currently some titles in the planning stage that should cause a stir with the audience. The film studio with the roaring lion is planning the “Creed” and “Rocky” films, which in turn are currently expanding. Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut “Creed III” is due to hit the cinemas at the end of next year, while Sylvester Stallone (74) is planning a “Rocky” prequel as a TV series. “Naturally Blond” is also part of MGM; a third part is currently being worked on, which is due to appear in 2022.
MGM also has strong series in the catalog that have won impressive reviews and prizes: “The Handmaid’s Tale – the Maid’s Report” with Elisabeth Moss (38), for example. The author of the book, Margaret Atwood (81), published a sequel in 2019 that takes place 15 years before the first part. After Hulu and MGM have secured the rights to it, Amazon could have another promising series hit up its sleeve. The series “Fargo”, which was previously shown on Netflix, should sooner or later switch exclusively to Amazon Prime – and multiply there. Author Noah Hawley (54) announced in March that he would start work on the fifth season next year.