Bond 26 Finally in Development? Some Thoughts

For years now the press has buzzed about an upcoming "Bond 26"--almost entirely on the basis of no actual information, instead simply recycling stale franchise gossip, offering speculations about the usual subjects ("Will Henry Cavill be the next James Bond?" they ask for the mind-numbing billionth time), and little "If I Were the Studio Boss"-type "think" pieces. A thin substitute for actual news, this clickbaity crap got very, very wearisome indeed. However those who follow the matter finally did get some real news this past February in the report that Amazon MGM had finally acquired complete creative control over the franchise, cutting the Broccoli family-Michael Wilson combination out of the picture entirely, after which there were at least semi-solid reports of development of a new Bond film being "fast-tracked" for production and "development" underway under the supervision of Amy Pascal and David Heyman with an eye to getting said film into theaters before the end of 2027.

Previously considering the lack of movement on the part of the franchise-runners in the over three year period since the release of the last Bond film (the Daniel Craig era capper No Time to Die) my guess had been that the executives were showing some caution and sitting tight given the huge question marks hanging over the film market since the pandemic, and what, after things started settling in 2023, we have seen of the post-pandemic market. This has been a significantly shrunken market for theatrical releases much less receptive to "tentpole"-type blockbusters than was the case a decade ago, where movies still can make big money but audiences have to be really excited for them if they are to come out at all, with the Bond films' standing here shaky in light of No Time to Die's softer gross and particular underperformance with the young, encouraging them to bide their time with this one, letting the field lie fallow, and given how insistent they were on coming back, at least trying to do so with something that a sizable audience would "really want."

Of course, as I have myself remarked, the studio bosses have been extremely resistant to these lessons, and now I suspect that those in charge of 007 were no exceptions to that pattern--that the delay has not been a reflection of the Suits showing some well-warranted circumspection about another go with another (let us be frank here) absolutely unnecessary iteration of a thoroughly exhausted franchise that could easily be left in the past, but rather the usual fight for control and egos and general stupidity that are the real "skill set" of the managerial class sitting atop the commanding heights of the economy here as well as everywhere else. This is, if anything, affirmed by the choice of producers for the project. In giving ex-Sony Boss Amy Pascal (who did as boss of that studio preside in some degree over prior Bond films) a closer involvement in this new film Amazon is bringing on board a toxic vulgarian unredeemed by any great competence. (As Sony CEO she actually seemed to have less grasp of the direction her own business was moving in than a casual reader of the Penske publications, while if the Suits' courtiers prefer to talk her up as having had a part in the success of Spider-Man--perhaps--we can also credit her with believing Will "The Slap" Smith's After Earth was the next Star Wars.) Coproducing the film with her is a dude who spent the last decade giving the world the profoundly ill-conceived cash grab that was the ultimately failed Fantastic Beasts series (in which, rather ominously for Bond, he banked on the affections of an aging audience that the producers took too much for granted as they signally failed to win over the younger crowd on the way to disappointing and dwindling ticket sales).

No, there was no sign of a learning process here, and the only thing about this whole situation that surprises me, really, is that I gave the folks running this show the benefit of the doubt, in this case leading me to have likely overestimated them. Moreover, none of this seems to me to bode well for the franchise at present, the more in as those who would make a successful Bond film in this market (or for that matter, any action film from a long-running franchise in this market) have such a big and difficult task on their hands. Of course, they may yet surprise us. But that's just it--their making a movie that really succeeds, artistically or commercially, would be a surprise, especially to the extent that the figures named here are able to claim any credit for said success.