Where Is 007?

 The next Bond movie should have been in production years ago. The last 007 film, in the over 50-year-old franchise, was 'No Time to Die' in 2021.

Barbara Broccoli with Daniel Craig, who starred in the last five Bond movies

It appears that long-time Bond producer and rights owner, Barbara Broccoli, and MGM, the production studio for all of the prior 27 Bond films, and was purchased by Amazon in 2021, are at loggerheads as to how future Bond films will be made and marketed. 

Broccoli believes that Amazon does not understand the very character that has made Bond films so successful. She has creative control over the 007 films and says they must have theatrical release and not turned into a streaming series on Amazon Prime. 

Amazon purchased MGM for $8.5 billion

The situation has got so intense that Broccoli recently characterized the status of the new movie in dire terms, "with no script, no story, and no new Bond. Amazon isn't a good home for Bond, the company's core business is selling everything from toilet paper to vacuums."

As part of the original MGM purchase, Amazon committed to releasing all Bond films as first-run cinema movies but now Amazon executives are pushing the idea of Bond TV spin-offs, portraying 007 with different genders, races, and sexes. These portrayals of Bond are completely anathema to Broccoli - who quickly shutdown those ideas. She firmly believes Bond "should always be played by a man, and should always be a Brit."

And to it goes. Too bad, as I, and millions of others, are huge Bond fans which eagerly await the next installment. 

By: Jim Lavorato