Linked List: February 20, 2025

Thursday, 20 February 2025

Barbara Broccoli on Amazon, in Private: ‘These People Are Fucking Idiots’ ★

Erich Schwartzel and Jessica Toonkel, reporting for The Wall Street Journal back on December 19, under the headline “Where Is James Bond? Trapped in an Ugly Stalemate With Amazon” (News+ link):

Nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release Bond movies through its $6.5 billion purchase of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, the 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 $6.5 billion the company paid for the studio.

When it comes to Bond’s future, the power lies in the hands of Barbara Broccoli, who inherited the control from her father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, and who for 30 years has decided when a new Bond movie can go into production. She has told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a 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 script, no story and no new Bond.

To friends, Broccoli has characterized her thoughts on Amazon this way: “These people are fucking idiots.”

One way out of a stalemate, apparently, is to sell. Here’s Broccoli’s public statement today, accompanying the news that Eon Productions has reached a deal that shifts creative control over the franchise to Amazon:

“My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli. I have had the honor of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of ‘No Time to Die’ and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”

Broccoli’s brother Michael Wilson was ever so slightly more magnanimous in his statement, saying “Therefore, Barbara and I agree, it is time for our trusted partner, Amazon MGM Studios, to lead James Bond into the future,” but it’s rather striking that Broccoli said not a word about Amazon in her statement, and Wilson’s praise only went so far as the lone adjective trusted. But the lie to Wilson’s attempt at even slight magnanimity is that Eon Productions and Amazon were never partners. It was the old MGM Studios, before Amazon’s acquisition, that was Eon’s partner from the very beginning (1963’s Dr. No).

I meant to post a link to this WSJ story when it broke, and mistakenly thought I had, but it slipped through the cracks around the holidays. But I’ve had a bad feeling about the franchise’s future ever since.

Leaked Image of the First Post-Humane-Acquisition Product From HP’s Printer Division ★

Didn’t take them long to start having an impact inside HP.

(Direct link to image, for those who can’t or don’t want to see the original on X.)

Amazon MGM Studios Takes Creative Control Over James Bond Franchise ★

Alex Ritman, with blockbuster news at Variety:

Amazon MGM Studios is set to take creative control of the James Bond franchise. The shock announcement — which is sure to shake and, indeed, stir the industry — was made Thursday, alongside the news that long-time producers and custodians of 007, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, would be stepping back.

As per details of the historic agreement, Amazon MGM Studios, Wilson and Broccoli have formed a new joint venture to house the James Bond intellectual property rights. The three parties will remain co-owners of the iconic franchise but Amazon MGM will have creative control.

The villains in Bond stories are often bald billionaire industrialists who either build rockets or own media companies, with lasciviously-dressed women on their arms. It’s hard to imagine how we could come closer to a real-life Bond villain taking control of the franchise. (At least it wasn’t Musk.)

“Nepo babies” is a term that tends only to be used pejoratively, but family ownership is a proven model to nurture and maintain — to protect — exceptional companies with exceptional cultures. Berkshire Hathaway owns several where their agreements not only allowed, but encouraged, the families to maintain control post-acquisition. See’s Candies comes to mind. This letter from Warren Buffet describes their strategy. But Berkshire is itself an exceptional company. Most corporate conglomerate acquisitions of creator/family-run endeavors wreak devastation upon everything that made those smaller operations unique and special. Look at what’s happened to The Washington Post now that Bezos owns it. There’s much to complain about The New York Times in general, and current publisher A.G. Sulzberger in particular (sixth generation of family control since Adolph Ochs bought the paper in 1896), but The Times is still The Times.

Heretofore, Barbara Broccoli did that with the 007 franchise. The output was uneven under her and Wilson’s producing stewardship, but the Daniel Craig era was a splendid return to form. There’s no other movie franchise like it. The closest is Mission Impossible but that franchise is a distant second place, in my mind. It lacks a certain magic, a timeless but yet somehow always modern je ne sais quoi of the 007 franchise. Always the same, but somehow always fresh.

I expect Amazon to bleed it dry, alas. Spinoffs and “universe” expansion galore, of generally low quality in all regards: writing, casting, production values. But most of all I expect they’ll make the same fundamental mistake Disney has made with Star Wars — instead of leaving us craving more, they’ll produce as much dreck as they can and leave us saying “enough, stop”, with the occasional gems fighting for attention in a river of downright embarrassing unwatchable crap. Somehow they managed to ruin Boba Fett.

What’s the best original show or movie Amazon has ever made? The Peripheral was pretty good but they cancelled after its first season. Reacher is fun but it’s junk-food fun, not serious fun. Amazon taking control of James Bond is like McDonald’s taking over a great steakhouse chain like Del Frisco’s.

I have a bad feeling about this.