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So, Barbara Broccoli of Eon Productions tells The Guardian the same story she's stated for more than a year. Bond needs to be reinvented, it will take a long time, we haven't really started yet.
Despite the lack of news, fans were deflated. Some were starting to buy into the idea that Aaron Taylor-Johnson was about to be cast or that Christopher Nolan was about to come on board as director.
There were always caution signs concerning both ideas. A director usually signs on before a new Bond actor is cast. Nolan demands the kind of control that Eon might not want to grant. Still, hope springs eternal.
A few things to keep in mind:
Eon is a cinematic mom-and-pop shop: Danjaq/Eon is a small family-owned business that just happens to own the film rights to a major property, James Bond.
Eon simply doesn't have the bandwidth to do much more than one film at a time. Clearly, Barbara Broccoli is interested in topics other than Bond.
Recent examples: Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), a drama about actress Gloria Grahame, with a global box office of $4 million. The Rhythm Section (2020), a spy movie with global box office of just under $6 million. Till (2022), a fact-based drama about a murder in the 1950s American South, with a global box office of $11.3 million.
Whatever the critical merits of such productions, they generate much smaller business than Bond.
On the other hand, Eon might be further along than they've let on: Eon can be, shall we say, truth-challenged when it comes to public pronouncements.
Back in the 1980s, Albert R. Broccoli, Eon's co-founder, denied Pierce Brosnan was seriously considered to play Bond and that Timothy Dalton was always its No. 1 guy.
This aired on national television in the U.S. Except, Brosnan had actually signed a contract. It came undone when NBC abruptly renewed Brosnan's Remington Steele series.
Cubby Broccoli was asked if Brosnan would have been Bond if NBC hadn't renewed the TV show. "I don't think he would," Broccoli said with a straight face.
More recently, Eon denied Ben Whishaw had been cast as Q. Except, Whishaw's agent had left the cat out of the bag. It denied that Naomie Harris was playing Moneypenny in Skyfall. Except, she was. It denied that Christoph Waltz was playing Blofeld in SPECTRE. Except, he was.
Could Barbara Broccoli have been less than truthful in her comments to The Guardian? Who knows?
Patience, patience: Some will tell you to be patient. A new Bond movie will be out eventually. Except, given the aging demographics of Bond fandom, each year brings the demise of older Bond fans. First-generation Bond film fans have to wonder how many 007 movies they have left.
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