Breaking Baz: Barbara Broccoli’s Close-Knit James Bond Circle Says Hearing 007 Deal News Was “As If There Had Been A Death In The Family”

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Barbara Broccoli began making the calls Thursday, London time, to her most frequent and trusted collaborators to tell them news would soon ricochet around the world like a bullet fired from a Walter PPK, the only weapon used by every actor to play James Bond in the Eon film franchise.

The message Broccoli relayed was that she and her producing partner Michael G. Wilson have relinquished creative control of all things 007.

One recipient who received the Broccoli phone call likened it to receiving a call “about a death in the family.” “Perhaps,” one of several people Deadline contacted said, and not in jest, “I do think that it’s possible that if God had sent us a totally no-brainer Bond in the last couple of years, then it might be a different situation.” Another told Deadline that Broccoli was “calm” and seemed “resigned” to what she and her partner and half-brother Wilson had signed away to Amazon MGM Studios. “You could tell she was upset though,” they said. “She sighed, said what she had to say about the impending announcement, and then we chatted about other stuff.” “Maybe it must be kind of enjoyable to be free of the kind of struggle,” one opined. “Rather, I think that that’s the positive side to it.

I think the reality is that you wouldn’t really want to hand over the family jewels to someone else when you … It’s obviously a massive decision, but I suppose you could say that it’s a natural point with the retirement of a Bond of an active Bond and the retirement of Michael who has been in, or what do you say, stepping back.