14 DAY TRIAL // In April this year, confirmation came that one of the most enduring and beloved film franchises in the history of cinema had succumbed to money problems as well, as the 23rd James Bond film was put on hold “indefinitely.” The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly takes a look at what this means and, after talking to media insiders, comes up with a very sad conclusion.
Even if the franchise is not dead-dead (as opposed to just “dead”) and everything will clear up, enabling the movie studio and producers to get another movie ready in a few years’ time, it will most likely be too late. In other words, EW says, the clock is ticking on the franchise, which means something should be done now, before the gap between audience and the story doesn’t become too wide, swallowing the franchise completely.
“These are dark days for James Bond fans. It will likely be years before 007 returns to the screen, thanks to money troubles at MGM, Bond’s longtime studio, which has been up for sale since November. Even Daniel Craig seems to have moved on, signing up for the lead in a different potential franchise, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The last time the Bond series was put on this sort of ‘indefinite’ hold was back in the early 1990s, after a series of legal battles (and Timothy Dalton) nearly wrecked the series. It took six years to get it up and running again,” EW writes. Six years could seem a like not much to us mortals, but things stand differently in showbiz.
“In Hollywood today, six years is an eternity. ‘No franchise can afford to be away from screens for that long anymore,’ says a former MGM exec. ‘You lose too much momentum. Even for Bond, it could be deadly.’ Of course, Bond has defied death before – just ask Blofeld – so we’re not counting him out just yet. One possibility: ‘[MGM] should sell the Bond franchise for a billion dollars to some sovereign company in Abu Dhabi and promise to make Bond movies in Abu Dhabi from now on,’ suggest one financial analyst familiar with the MGM sale. The name is Bond, Jamal Bond. We could live with that,” the same report says.
There is also another possibility but, understandably, neither the people behind the franchise nor the fans even want to consider it. After 22 successful films (to varying degrees), 007 could hang up his gun, tie and Martini – shaken, not stirred – and call it a day. In other words, producers could call lights off for James Bond and bow down in style, without forcing to happen what is clearly not happening.
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