As I sit here, right now, some Amazon execs are looking at a lot of footage. They are mulling and they are deciding. They are wondering when to send up the white smoke. Because at some point, they are going to have to decide who is the new James Bond 007.
And the weird thing is: I'm not really bothered.
But what's happening right now doesn't feel like Bond. Without an Eon-shaped hand on the tiller, I'm not sure I care. One of the central, wonderful parts of the James Bond franchise is that it's a family. That Peter Lamont can be a draughtsman on Goldfinger in 1964 and then the production designer on Casino Royale in 2006. That John Barry can dip in and out whenever he fancies. That actors and writers and designers of all stripes get invited back for the next one; that the British film industry looks to 007 to give them all a job and a purpose every few years. It gives Pinewood a big load of cash for a while. It's funding a British orchestra to do the music. It's giving hundreds of stuntmen a paycheque. It's all because, back in 1961, Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman signed a deal with Ian Fleming and created a series that they, and their children, oversaw for sixty years.
This new Bond film doesn't have a single member of the family involved. (I am aware that Eon is theoretically involved on a financial level but Babs and Mickey aren't getting invited to the board meetings). The new Bond film is owned by a multinational corporation and is a franchise it can exploit within its portfolio of brands. It's one of a million.
The reason James Bond is special is because of the people who made James Bond films. Every 007 picture fed into the next; every movie was reliant on its predecessor. Because it was a family production, each one was important to maintain the legacy and the brand. If one failed, there was an important discussion about how to move on. Cubby didn't get sacked when For Your Eyes Only didn't make as much money as Moonraker; Babs didn't have to resign because Die Another Day wasn't very good. Eon worked out how to respond and move on and negotiate 007 with the public.
With Amazon, I've lost the emotional connection. I don't believe that the current producers are sitting around discussing how to continue the Bond legacy. I don't think they consider this to be Bond 26; this is the start of something new, the way Batman Forever or Batman Begins or The Batman or any number of other superhero relaunches have been. Take a name, slap it on a new film, you like that don't you? Oh, you don't? Don't worry, here's a new one. That story about Barbara Broccoli being horrified by 007 being referred to as "content" struck a dark chord. I don't want a Moneypenny series; I couldn't give a monkeys what the rest of the Double Os are up to. James Bond is now in the hands of people who want a tentpole rather than people who actually want to make a good Bond film.
When Daniel Craig was announced as Bond, I had no idea who he was or what he did, but I trusted Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson as the holders of the flame to cast it well. They were bang on. I don't have that trust today. I think they'll cast someone who is famous, or who is "the type", or who is "good enough". Three films with a fourth in reserve? Nah, we can dump you after one if we don't like it; there were fifty Tarzans. You're the face of a franchise for now. I think back to how Eon got the script to GoldenEye together and still invited Timothy Dalton back to be Bond, how he was a pall bearer at Cubby Broccoli's funeral. I feel like that world has been lost.
I'm watching the Bond casting. I'm watching the info about the new Bond film. But I'm now at a detach. This isn't my Bond any more; this is a franchise extension, the way John Gardner was in the 80s. It doesn't count, any more than Never Say Never Again or the 1967 Casino Royale count, or Nobody Lives For Ever or Never Dream of Dying or whatever that Q novel is count.. This is a different world we're in now and I don't think it's a world that I'm involved in. It's sad and heart breaking and I look forward to being proved wrong. I hope I am. I want 007 to continue being one of the greatest movie franchises in history. I don't think the people in charge necessarily want that.
James Bond is dead. Long live James Bond.
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