Amazon MGM Studios secures creative control over James Bond under new joint venture

James Bond is now no longer under the Broccoli family’s control. The 60-year-old spy movie franchise is now under the creative direction of Amazon MGM Studios.

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Amazon announced the joint venture on Thursday, saying that the company will “house the James Bond intellectual property rights, and those parties will remain co-owners of the franchise.”

“Those parties” refers to Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Amazon.

Amazon MGM Studios, however, will have creative control of the franchise when the deal closes.

“We are grateful to the late Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman for bringing James Bond to movie theatres around the world, and to Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli for their unyielding dedication and their role in continuing the legacy of the franchise that is cherished by legions of fans worldwide. We are honoured to continue this treasured heritage, and look forward to ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world.” Prime Video and Amazon MGM head Mike Hopkins said in a news release.

Wilson said he is “stepping back” from producing the films to “focus on art and charitable projects”

Barbara Broccoli said with Wilson’s retirement, she feels “it is time to focus on my other projects.”

Wilson was Albert Broccoli’s stepson, Barbara Broccoli was Albert’s daughter, the BBC reported.

Albert Broccoli started the film franchise in 1962 and his daughter and stepson eventually took it over.

The most recent film “No Time to Die” featured the latest Bond, Daniel Craig, in his final outing as 007, according to the BBC. There has been speculation on who could take over the iconic role, but no one has officially been tapped, Variety reported. Eventually, Amazon will have to make that determination, but no timeframe was given, according to the news outlet.

The BBC speculated that Amazon MGM could expand the Bond universe similar to what Disney has done with “Star Wars” and the first step was the spin-off series “007: Road to a Million” where teams raced to win £1 million in a spy challenge race. But it was not received well.

Amazon already had the distribution rights for James Bond films after it acquired MGM.

The e-commerce-turned-streaming service bought MGM for $8.5 billion in 2022, Variety reported. With the purchase, it got more than 4,000 films and 17,000 television shows.

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