Could Amazon’s James Bond Movies Be Good?
Is Amazon planning to make James Bond movies that might actually be… good? When the company – specifically Amazon MGM Studios – acquired creative control of the James Bond franchise from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson and their company, EON Productions, many assumed they would turn it into a generic, homogenized, woke mess (perhaps even more so than Broccoli, Wilson, and Daniel Craig already have). And there’s evidence to suggest that’s the case; before the handover took place, the Amazon team floated ideas like Moneypenny and Felix Leiter spin-offs, with one Amazon producer referring to the franchise as “content” while another employee said, “I don’t think James Bond is a hero.” Then, there’s The Rings of Power, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel series that seems to be almost universally reviled by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy creation. These people having complete control of James Bond sounds like the most promising attempt to destroy him since… well, since Broccoli and Wilson killed him in a movie, proving they don’t get the character like their legendary father/step-father did, either.
But there is a sliver of hope on the horizon, and faint as it may be, it’s at least a chance to bring back the classic James Bond we’ve been missing for a while – and, after this deal, never thought we’d see again. First came a report from The Daily Mail about an internal memo at Amazon declaring that James Bond will remain “British or from the Commonwealth” and a man. That’s good, although I don’t care for them saying they’re discussing whether Bond “should be played by a man of colour;” he is not a character who can be race-swapped, and it doesn’t sound like Amazon realizes that, or cares. The “Amazon insider” who leaked the memo to The Daily Mail also claimed that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos is “a massive James Bond fan,” which seems like public relations to me, especially since he appears to be open to playing DEI games with him. However, an even more interesting idea came from The Wrap (which is behind a paywall, but BroBible has the details), who spoke to “half a dozen industry insiders” who say that Amazon’s “top choice” to direct the next Bond movie is Christopher Nolan.
Nolan directing Amazon’s first James Bond movie would be a big step in the right direction, and not just because he’s an awesome filmmaker – because he’s a legit James Bond fan. He’s made no secret of how much he loves the James Bond movies or how they’ve influenced his own films; any Bond fan watching the action sequence set in the snow in Inception immediately thought of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Bruce Wayne’s visits to Lucius Fox’s Applied Science Division at Wayne Enterprises in Batman Begins were highly reminiscent of the early scenes in a Bond film where 007 gets his gadgets from Q. Even more importantly, he never qualifies his adoration of James Bond; there’s nothing like No Time to Die director Cary Fukunaga (who I was excited about seeing tackle a Bond movie; shows what I know) calling Sean Connery’s Bond a rapist (you can watch the scene he was referring to below) or Danny Boyle wanting to bring Bond into the MeToo era or even Barbara Broccoli saying she wanted Bond to evolve “as men are evolving.” Nolan just loves James Bond, and if he has enough control over a Bond film, I’d have more faith than I would with most that he would make it as close to the classic James Bond movies as you can.
Ultimately, though, I don’t think this is likely to happen for several reasons. First, Amazon appears to want to get a James Bond movie into production as soon as possible, and Nolan will be busy filming The Odyssey this year. Second, I don’t think Amazon would be willing to grant Nolan as much control over a Bond film as he’d like. Third, I’m sorry, but I’ll believe the whole “we won’t make James Bond woke” pitch when I see it, and while I give Amazon credit for something like Reacher, it doesn’t overshadow Rings of Power, The Boys, or G20. However, there is a slight chance at least some of this could come to pass. The Daily Mail says that their source released that memo in response to “erroneous rumors” about their intentions – meaning they’ve heard the widespread assumptions about what they’ll do to James Bond, and they want to dispel them. If they’re worried enough about Bond being a big moneymaker for them, maybe… just maybe… they’ll curb their impulses and make real, fun, cool, sexy, masculine, exciting, politically incorrect Bond films and use those stupid spin-off ideas for their woke experimentation. (And its worth pointing out that when Bezos asked who people wanted to play James Bond, the overwhelming top choice was Henry Cavill.) I’d be okay with that; as long as the actual James Bond movies are great, let them make their excruciating girl power Moneypenny show or Felix Leiter: Gay, Fay, and in the CIA. Those are almost certainly best ignored anyway. And while I’m at a point where I’ve accepted that the James Bond series is long gone for me, I’d be ecstatic to have it back.
Let us know what you think of the potential for good Amazon James Bond movies in the comments!
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