Heavy on James Bond content today, as there was some major news regarding the series’ future along with two other tidbits that haven’t received nearly as much attention.
First, Amazon threw another billion dollars at Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to take over full control of the Bond series. Broccoli especially has not been thrilled with what she believes Amazon’s plans for the series are – she assumes they will milk it for content the way Disney has mined the Star Wars brand and dilute its quality and value – which has prevented any progress in either selecting Daniel Craig’s successor or even developing a script for the next 007 film.
James Bond’s long-serving producers give control to Amazon
I also think it’s strange that after initially making all the Bond films available on Prime Video following Amazon’s aquisition of MGM, almost all of them have disappeared. I’m not sure if that had something to do with this battle, but perhaps they begin to cycle through Prime again.
One internet author takes the obvious, hilarious swing at what an Amazon Bond script might look like.
Exclusive: Amazon’s new James Bond script
An Austrian developer is challenging the trademark of the James Bond name in Europe that could lead to businesses being able to slap it on just about any product.
James Bond in battle to keep hold of 007 super spy’s name
Finally, the UK and European copyrights on Ian Fleming’s original works are about to expire, which could lead to some very interesting possibilities.
Licence to kill: could a James Bond horror emerge when book copyrights expire?
Here’s an assessment of Jon Krakaeur’s battle with a YouTube troll I linked to a week or so back.
Also, as the internet demonstrates over and over again, we just love picking a villain, then doubling down on the choice until we’ve transformed them into an absurd caricature of wickedness. Whatever need this impulse serves, it’s never a desire to know the truth.
Finally, a fun internet list. I’ve seen about 30% of these.