Amazon has acquired half of James Bond: Is anyone worried?

Recently, Amazon acquired the movie vault of MGM including the James Bond films. In a guest essay in the New York Times screenwriter John Logan, who wrote scripts for both Skyfall and Spectre, expressed his concern that now the Bond movies might fall victim to Hollywood's tendency to view the films through the lens of what can be done to make the films' more monetarily profitable rather than making them 'better.'

Mr. Logan points out that the Bond movies are a "family business," not a franchise in the mold of the Marvel and DC comics characters.Indeed, according to Logan "the reason we’re still watching Bond movies after more than 50 years is that the family has done an extraordinary job of protecting the character through the thickets of movie making and changing public tastes. Corporate partners come and go, but James Bond endures. He endures precisely because he is being protected by people who love him."

And though Logan admits that the Broccoli/Wilson family have been assured of artistic control of the Bond pictures, he worries. As a long-time member of the film industry-- he has three Oscar nominations to his credit for screenwriting-- Logan is concerned that the heavy hand of pressure to make decisions based on the bottom line instead of the best interests of the characters or the story.

To which I say," Doh."

Read the whole story and then leave your comments.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/opinion/amazon-mgm-james-bond-bezos.html