How Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Reached His Breaking Point With James Bond Producers

Divorces (usually) don’t happen overnight, and the one that recently went down between Amazon MGM Studios and longtime James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson had been brewing for quite a while now. The super-spy franchise has always remained under the control of the Broccoli family, which is what made it so shocking that the two co-leads would be handing over creative control to, essentially, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. In the immediate aftermath, the industry as a whole has been struggling to wrap its minds around exactly what went down between the two parties and why the lifelong stewards of the property would abruptly step away from their family legacy. Luckily, a new report this morning may go a long way towards shedding some light on that.

The Hollywood Reporter published an in-depth, comprehensive look at Amazon’s hostile takeover of the franchise (complete with artwork likening the famously bald billionaire Bezos to Bond super-villain Blofeld, hilariously enough). Amid all the juicy gossip and secondhand accounts of Amazon’s plans for Bond after it initially absorbed MGM Studios back in 2022 (such as pitches for a Moneypenny-centric streaming series, a spinoff show about the CIA agent character Felix Leiter played by Jeffrey Wright in the Daniel Craig movies, and even some sort of project involving a female 007), the article pinpoints the precise breaking point that ultimately sealed the Bond property’s fate.

Remember that behind-the-scenes drama between Broccoli and Amazon we previously reported in December of last year? You know, the one where Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke set up a meeting to discuss the future of Bond, failed to impress Broccoli in the slightest (Salke apparently didn’t help by referring to the franchise as “content”), and inadvertently led Broccoli to dismiss Amazon’s suits as “f***ing idiots”? Once news of that quote reached Bezos’ ears, THR states that, according to a source, “‘[Bezos] read [Barbara Broccoli’s] quote in [the Wall Street Journal] and got on the phone and said, ‘I don’t care what it costs, get rid of her.'” What that ultimately ended up costing was nothing less than a cool billion dollars to get Broccoli to cede creative control over to Amazon and sail off into retirement.

James Bond has always been a resourceful character reliant on moves and countermoves to get the job done, one way or another … but he may have finally met his match with the daddy of all conglomerates. As the smoke continues to clear on the Broccoli family putting the future of Bond in the uncertain hands of Amazon, the rest of us are left to speculate on why this stunning development happened the way they did and where that leaves the state of the franchise now.

To answer that first part, THR reinforces the popular narrative that the retirement of Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli’s half brother and fellow Bond steward, had much to do with her decision to step back as well. While Broccoli largely oversaw the creative storytelling behind each movie after the death of her father Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, Wilson tended to stay in his lane as the business manager and production guru. Together, the two were able to handle the oftentimes grueling nature of every Bond shoot. With Wilson recently announcing his decision to retire altogether, Broccoli’s thought process changed significantly. According to THR:

Wilson’s departure was said to be a big factor in Broccoli’s ultimate decision to walk away from the franchise. After 30 years of Bond movies, she no longer had the stomach or stamina for the endless studio battles or the years-long Bond production marathons, certainly not on her own. And there was no obvious successor ­– not even Wilson’s son, Greg, who’s been working on the recent films but who, insiders say, wasn’t considered ready to step into his father’s shoes.

So, with Broccoli and Wilson both out of the picture, where does that leave us with the next Bond movie? Well, more or less exactly where we’ve been for the last four years since “No Time To Die” marked the end of Craig’s tenure. There’s no script, actor, or director officially in place to lead James Bond into a brave new world entirely under Amazon’s purview … and that’s not likely to change until a new creative head (or two) is installed specifically to shepherd the Bond franchise. For now, stay tuned to /Film as we remain in a holding pattern until things come into focus.