Like a lot of other James Bond fans, I was shocked last week to wake up to the news that the Broccoli family was stepping back from their involvement with the James Bond film franchise and letting Amazon and MGM Studios take the wheel of the Aston Martin DB5. On one hand, I admire anyone who has the courage to realize their time at the table has ended and it’s time to step away. I did that myself in 2021. Good for Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson for having the simple self-respect and courage it takes to take that step. The duo has controlled the Bond movie empire since Goldeneye in 1995, with both of their involvement with the films starting while their father Cubby Broccoli was still producing them.
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson • Photo: Greg Williams/EON Productions
I have been a lifelong James Bond fan: the movies, the books, the music, are all an intrinsic part of my life. I’m not sure if my first memories of the character were from my grandfather’s smoky paperbacks; I definitely remember a copy of From Russia With Love next to his reading chair in the early 1960s, a novel I later found out was on President John F. Kennedy’s reading list.
That Signet paperback that lingered by my grandfather’s reading chair for a long time …
I do know that my first Bond movie was Goldfinger, which I saw in the summer of 1964 at the Victoria Theater in Tamaqua, PA, my hometown. I loved everything about that movie: Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent 007, Harold Sakata as Oddjob, Gert Frobe’s awkward, stilted way of speaking (later explained when I learned that the German actor didn’t speak a word of English and his entire performance as Goldfinger had to be dubbed by another actor), Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, with a name that went totally over my nine-year-old head. (She liked cats, I guess?) John Barry’s excellent music score, Shirley Bassey’s glass-breaking theme song vocals. That car—the Aston Martin DB5, with all those gadgets. (“Ejector seat? You must be joking”.) I was totally smitten by Bond and totally envious when a weird kid named Teddy, who lived down the street from my grandparents, showed off his official James Bond 007 Attache Case, with hidden “knife” and collapsible gun. I could never persuade my parents to get me one for Christmas … maybe they were afraid the briefcase aspect would cause me to become a CPA. I had to settle for the Man From U.N.C.L.E. toys instead.
Okay, I get the wife thing, but is it okay to covet thy neighbor’s James Bond toys?
I religiously saw every Bond film after Goldfinger, all in theaters. I was very sad when Connery left, even sadder when the wooden George Lazenby took over in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I know that film has gotten more and more praise over the years, but only Diana Rigg makes it any good to me. I hated Telly Savalas’s very American Blofeld. Connery came back for a big payday in Diamonds Are Forever, but it wasn’t the same. His toupee bugged me, Jill St. John was awful, and once again producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman recast Blofeld, this time with an actor—Charles Gray—who appeared in You Only Live Twice as a totally different character.
Bad casting has followed the James Bond franchise through all 25 films, including the five Daniel Craig ones; it’s almost like the Broccoli family super-power is picking the wrong person to be the main villain. With the exception of Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale and Javier Bardem in Skyfall, all the other Bond/Craig film baddies are just plain … bad. Rami Malek as Safin in No Time To Die? Bad. Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace? Horribly bad. Christoph Walz as Blofeld in Spectre? Baddest of all. Why do they think these quiet, little men make great movie villains? And don’t get me started on how many different actors played CIA agent Felix Leiter!
I endured the Roger Moore years, a stretch of seven “funny” films that went on far too long. I put up with the two Timothy Dalton movies. But I loved the first Pierce Brosnan movie, Goldeneye, which I felt totally reinvigorated the character. The other three Brosnan movies had diminishing returns for me. Tomorrow Never Dies is enlivened by a young Michelle Yeoh as Bond’s Chinese counterpart, but Jonathan Pryce’s media mogul desperate to start a war and constantly click-clacking away on a keyboard was annoying. The World Is Not Enough is just plain awful—especially Denise Richards—and I think if you eliminate the Halle Berry and Madonna scenes from Die Another Day, it could be a decent movie, albeit one that’s only 25 minutes long (drop the invisible car and wind surfing scenes too, while you’re at it, please). Thank god they never did the “Jinx” spinoff.
So maybe the Broccoli family taking themselves to the sidelines is a good thing, but my biggest fear is that Amazon/MGM will cause James Bond to suddenly be … well, let me put it this way: When I worked as a graphic designer in television news, I once heard the lead anchor at my station say this off-camera during the commercial break about a local politician: “He’s like dog shit … he’s EVERYWHERE.” Many industry “experts” say Amazon grossly overpaid for MGM just to get the James Bond rights. The Broccoli family has always been very deliberate and slow-moving when it came to doing new films, and it was always movies. As recently as late last year, there were stories stating that Barbara Broccoli thought the suits she was dealing with at Amazon were morons and it seemed like the family and the studio had reached an impasse as to the future of 007. Reportedly it took an extra billion dollars to get them over that impasse and give Amazon creative control.
I’m sure we’ll see an announcement of a new James Bond film—number 26, if you’re scoring at home—by the end of this year. Maybe an announcement of a streaming series on Prime, too. Hopefully it won’t be another 007: Road to a Million insipid game/reality show hosted by someone like Brian Cox … hey, Brian, just so you know, it’s okay to say NO every once in a while. McDonald’s and UberEats commercials should be enough to tide you over, but I will concede you’d make a great “M.” You should say yes to that offer, if it comes up.
I can see a spinoff or two, maybe a Felix Leiter series or a Moneypenny one. It would be nice to have a new Bond film every two or three years on a regular basis, made with someone like Richard Madden or Theo James or Jack Lowden in the starring role (although I admit Lowden might lend himself to a more Moore-ish semi-humorous portrayal, but in the case of the Scottish Slow Horses actor, extra points for being married to Saoirse Ronan, who has publicly admitted she wants to be a Bond villain.
Saoirse Ronan on Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Over the years, I’ve amassed a pretty great James Bond collection, mainly books, but I will admit to buying the movies multiple times on physical media from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to streaming. For the books, a friend once asked me “How many copies of Goldfinger do you need?” and it’s as many as I want, providing I like the covers.
Goldfinger, Goldfinger, Goldfinger, Goldfinger, Goldfinger, Goldfinger.
My favorite 007 novels are the original 1950-60s Pan British paperbacks, where Bond appears on the cover looking alternately like a typical British fop or a ruthless thug. It’s like nobody could figure out what he really looked like, even though author Ian Fleming did describe him early on.
1950s-60s British James Bond paperbacks, published by Pan and Great Pan, my personal faves.
Whatever Amazon/MGM decides to do with movie’s greatest super-spy, I’ll be around to watch. I just hope they get on with it quickly. No Time to Die was not a great cinematic ending for James Bond, as far as I’m concerned, but I do admire the Broccolis for allowing Daniel Craig to go out with a bang, so to speak, even if most of the movie was just a mere whimper. Here’s hoping the Broccoli-less future of 007 won’t be as underwhelming as his last film, and not as overwhelming as dog sh … well, you know.
@innocent-bystander.com 
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