Speaker 1: And we are back. So our next topic takes us
to a special Bond, James Bond. You might say, yeah,
it seems like there's a little bit of a trouble
in the Bond household, a little bit of I'm not
gonna say that, actually domestic fighting going on or something
in hell. Okay, you pretty just said it, which is
the case. There's definitely some stuff going down here, and
it seems like just the new Double O seven is
kind of in peril is the word that's being used.
So basically, I've got the information here that I'm just
gonna kind of like just slap down on you guys. So,
nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release
Bond movies through its six point five billion purchase of
the Metro Goldwyn Mayor studio, relationship between the family that
oversees the franchise and the e commerce giant has all
but collapsed. The decaying partnership has scuttled any near term
hope of a new Bond film, a black eye for
Amazon's ambitions in Hollywood, since, at the time of the
MGM sale, the Bond franchise represented a significant share of
the six point five billion that the company paid for
the studio. Now, when it comes to Bond's future, the
power lies in the hands of Barbara Broccoli, who inherited
her last names Broccoli, who inherited the control from her father,
Albert Cubby Broccoli, and who for thirty years has decided
when a new Bond movie can go into production. She's
told friends she doesn't trust algorithm centric Amazon with a character.
Speaker 2: Oh what it is, let's go broccoly.
Speaker 1: Character she helped to mythologize through big screen storytelling and
gut instinct. This fall, she characterized the status of a
new movie in dire terms, no scrip, no story, and
no new Bond. To friends. Broccoli has characterized her thoughts
on Amazon this way and I quote, these people are
fucking idiots. Quote. A representative for Eon, the production from
behind the Bond film said Broccoli and other members of
the family had no comment. The two sides are at
an impasse, and Amazon needs Broccoli to furnish them with
ideas for a new Bond movie, but Broccoli doesn't want
to make a new Bond movie with Amazon. The standoffs,
say people on both sides of the divide, boils down
to a clash between the twentieth 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.
This story is based on interviews with more than twenty
people familiar with the Broccoli Amazon feud, including executives, business partners,
and friends. The Broccolis families control James Bond has few
comparisons in contemporary Hollywood, where they've already turned down like
TV shows and video games, and at least one tie
in casino.
Speaker 2: Turned down IOI though, to make a James Bond game.
So no.
Speaker 1: For much of her career, Broccoli has made those calls
with her stepbrother, Uh, what's his name? His name?
Speaker 2: His name is Cauliflower, Mike Wilson common.
Speaker 1: H Bond. That character, he's a family heirloom.
Speaker 3: You said a lot of words from here, Taylor. I
feel like I'm grasping some of it. So Amazon purchased
six point five billion dollars from MGM four.
Speaker 1: They didn't purchase six point five billion dollars.
Speaker 3: Sorry, they spent six point five billion dollars. You lost
me early on then, for what the filming.
Speaker 1: Rights of the studio that basically own or was like
handling James Bond. They bought that Metro Goldwin Studio and
that was okay, James Bond, I have the rights and stuff,
but they can't make anything because the people that have
you know, James Bond is their family era not giving them.
Speaker 2: They need to approve that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're not happy with just Amazon as a whole,
the Falcons, the.
Speaker 2: Whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, like in one hand, like I I respect
them like really trying to protect like what James Bond is,
like the more genuine version of it, Like they don't
want to just dilute it in a certain way, which
I think could very much happen when when something big
purchases something. I feel like we've seen that sometimes with
Disney and Star Wars. I mean, and like not to
say like it's only been bad from Disney purchasing Star Wars,
and not to discount the potential greatness that could come
out of you know, them being a little bit more
open opening their borders to the legs of Amazon when
it comes to to Bond eating their broccolis. But I
don't know, I it's it's also tough because, like I
don't know everything that was suggest Like I was said,
I don't know if they were like complete assholes towards them,
Like I don't know all the details beyond kind of
you know, the seventy percent that I grasped from what
you were laying out to me there. But uh, it's
it's a spicy situation. I feel like I'm also like
no Time to Die that came out. It's going to
be a couple of years now, but it still feels
so recent. I think because it was just such a
big journey with the Craig films that personally I'm not
really like itching for another Bond film. I guess just
knowing I have another mission impossible on the on the
Rise like that that's going to be scratching that itch,
I guess, And yeah, I don't. I don't know. So
on on one hand, I feel like at the end
of this, without a lot of context and knowing fully
what's going on behind the scenes, I feel like I'm
siding more with the Broccolis.
Speaker 2: With this, with this one over the ice cream.
Speaker 3: But uh, yeah, I probably missed a lot of other
things you said, but you guys on something else.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's uh It's kind of funny to me because
what you're talking about there of like them wanting to
protect from just like diluting the property by just making
Suff's like it's been like.
Speaker 2: Twenty something James Bond movies.
Speaker 4: Like I feel like they just let it ride, Like
they just let it roll and raking in that Broccoli money.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, like, are they do they really care.
Speaker 3: Maybe quality of it or maybe all of those versions
of them making or all the people making those movies
were just really like open to everything that the Broccolis
were suggesting, and they just were hitting all those boxes
where maybe Amazon is like, yeah, no, we're not gonna
do that, We're gonna do our own thing, and then
that could be like a straight up like maybe maybe
they're just getting older and angrier in their old age.
I don't know much about the broccoli fan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess my read on it is more that
like maybe they just see it as like, oh, now
that Amazon owns this, we can strong arm them because
they have so much more and we can get a
shit ton of money out of this.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: It's like, I don't know they really care about the
quality of these things. I feel like there's really ups
and downs with Bond. I don't know how precious they
really are with it, but just seems like a weird
hill to do after we've had so many movies already.
But I'm also in the same boat as you, kirkha
where I'm not a big Bond guy. But any you mean,
I've seen a handful of the movies, don't really none
of them are really like my favorites by any means,
But like, yeah, I feel like I'm down if we
just wait five at least five years, ten years before
we get a new one, take some time, let the
property breathe a bit.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get that game from IOI.
Speaker 4: I don't know if we're gonna get anything else. I
guess if they're probably not allowing TV shows or anything
like that, as the article mentioned, so, but there's nothing
wrong with that to just let something, let something live,
let something die, let people stew on that for a
while and come back later. There's tons of other movies
in that genre.
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I guess I'm not.
Speaker 4: I don't really care one way the other what happens here,
But yeah, I don't know. The whole thing does seem
like may be a ploy to just try and get
a little bit more money. I mean, i'd be interesting
to hear, like because it sounds like Amazon acquired not
just Bond, right, they acquired MGM, which that was like
a subsidiary of it. And I wonder what Amazon was
what they had their sights on when they made that purchase,
was bond A big part of that? Was it half
of why they wanted to buy it was like almost
all of it. I'd have to go through and look
at the properties other things that they acquired with that acquisition.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Guess it's kind of lame if they like spend all
that money with the intention of getting bonded. But like
they probably also would have known that there's like the
there's broccoli gate going on here and they got to go.
Speaker 2: Through that if they want to make these movies.
Speaker 4: So but also like I have no sympathy for Amazon
as a company, So like, you know, if that if
they just lost.
Speaker 2: Bunch money, who cares? That's fine to me.
Speaker 4: I'm sure they make it back in seventeen seconds with
with their website there.
Speaker 2: So uh, yeah, this all feels like a bunch. This
feels like a high school drama or something like.
Speaker 4: All these people's you know, having these little fights over
meaningless little things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's at the end of the day. I feel
like it just it does come down to money, but
I mean the Broccolis, it feels like, Okay, it's a
little bit more than that. It's a legacy to their
family with this character. And you know, you're you're starting
a you're starting something new. And I feel like, Okay,
all of these James Bond movies, I'm not very well
affiliated with them, but I feel like it's all one
continued narrative over the past like half a century, like
these movies have been coming out. I feel like, of
course it's been different actors portraying this character, but I
feel like it's all just been one consistent, like ongoing narrative.
Right Like the James Bond that we have here is
the same one that's gone through all these adventures to
like thirty years ago. But what we're seeing right now is, Okay,
Amazon wants to put their stamp on it, to put
their mark on it, and do a new story, new
James Bond actor. All of that's just start fresh, and
that probably puts a lot of pressure on them because
it's it's putting them into a corner and it's not
necessarily giving them probably a lot as not as much
as creative freedom as they really really want or were
hoping for. And it doesn't sound like they necessarily had
to say in Amazon buying the Metro gold Win and
just kind of taking those rights. It sounds like, okay,
that was just that happened and they just had to
run with it. I remember at the time, I think
people were pretty happy about it when Amazon bought them
and they we're just going to get a little bit
more because I think that was probably coming off when
I can't remember what the last James Bond movie is
titled No Time to Die. Okay, Yeah, so that one
was kind of, you know, the end of this this
era with Daniel Craig. But yeah, it's it's unfortunate that
they're they're kind of hitting an impass here and they're
not able to come to an agreement and pump something
else out. But the only time will tell, you know,
they got to just come to a resolution, come to
an agreement, calm down, and stop calling each other fucking idiots.
So yeah, anything else on the almost said James Gun dispute,
James Bond Dispute, Mullow, oh else, okay.