Peter Bart: As Amazon Decides How To Reinvent James Bond, Past 007s May Have Some Ideas
deadline.comWill Amazon’s 007 franchise ever take center stage again? Thinking about this, I flashed back to a conversation with an actor friend telling me, “I’ve just been offered a big payday as the next James Bond but I can’t get over the feeling that his every line has been said before – and maybe better.” I was talking with John Gavin who, instead of replacing Sean Connery, opted for a lower salary as Ambassador to Mexico. “Does the world really need another Bond?” he asked.
I thought of Gavin this week because his 1983 question is again being bandied about at all-powerful Amazon, which has seized control of the franchise after the 60-year reign of the Broccoli dynasty.
Bond has endured 25 iterations grossing a total of $7.8 billion worldwide, with its last title three years ago appropriately titled No Time to Die.
Jeff Bezos is publicly asking “Who will be the next Bond?” but Gavin had another question: Have Bond movies become somewhat old and British, their sexuality geriatric and their martinis over-stirred?
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