This Month In Bond (March 2025)

We're not dead yet

What a wild couple of weeks it has been!

The tectonic plates of the James Bond franchise rocked a week last Thursday and the aftershocks of Amazon’s take-over of creative control are still being felt. The rights to big screen Bond have only significantly changed twice before in history: once in 1975 when Harry Saltzman sold his 50% to United Artists, and second in 2004 when Michael G. Wilson took legal ownership following the passing of Dana Broccoli (Barbara Broccoli would become co-owner).

We have covered the machinations of the Amazon deal in detail on the website, with news breaking daily with additional detail and commentary. Whether or not EON Productions will be involved in the next era of Bond, or a Broccoli/Wilson name is on the credits in any capacity, for the first time a new creative team will be calling the shots. Whether you are excited by the potential for change, or are in mourning for the end of everything we’ve known for over 60 years, one thing is certain: we’re about to enter a period of chaos.

A detail that was missed by many, even the trade press, is that the agreement will not be finalized until at least May, which means Amazon won’t be in a position to make announcements until the summer. Given they have been waiting three years to get total control, and slapped down an additional $1b, they won’t be making rash decisions.

Amazon has only 10 years to exploit their investment fully, for in 2035 James Bond enters the public domain. Ian Fleming died in 1964, and copyright protects his creations until the year after the 70th anniversary of his passing. The character of James Bond will be available for anyone to use from 2035 onwards, but of course, there are elements of the film franchise that are protected (gun barrel, signature theme music, Q character, etc) so non-Amazon projects will have to tread carefully. We have been here before though, as Kevin McClory exercised his rights to remake the ‘Thunderball’ novel as ‘Never Say Never Again’ in 1983 but had to avoid EON-owned tropes.

As we posted on social media after the announcement, the Bond franchise can be seen in three epochs:

• #1: 1961-2025 EON Productions

• #2: 2025-2035 Amazon Studios

• #3: 2035+ Public Domain

What an exciting time it is to be a Bond fan! In almost the time it took EON to release the last two films, we’ll see a new studio take a shot at it and the character move into the public domain.

Before the big news last week, things in the world of Bond were slow and quiet. We felt it too - it’s been a challenge to stay as engaged and motivated when developments are few and far between. Whilst some decided quickly to call it a day (“it was a good run”) the feelings here at MI6 HQ are of rebirth and reinvigoration. We’ll be here to provide thorough coverage through these interesting times just as we did when we started back in 1997.

Listen

A good crisis should never be wasted, so we rounded up some of our regular panelists for an emergency James Bond & Friends podcast episode to talk about the Amazon news and our feelings on how things may shape up in the years to come:

Read

1980 saw a changing of the guard when it came to the team behind the cameras. Although John Glen’s first of five consecutive films as director did not have the challenge of introducing a new James Bond, he did have to reset the franchise after the excesses of Moonraker.

For Your Eyes Only has grown in stature over the years, especially when viewed in the context of Glen making it as a follow-up to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Issue #75 of MI6 Confidential magazine is now shipping around the world.

Watch

The BBC opened their archives last week and released their full 1970 interview with George Lazenby where he talks candidly about the making of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and the disagreements that followed.

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