If there is any progress on Bond 26 it seems like it is moving at a snail’s pace.
Variety has published an interview with Eon bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson to coincide with them receiving two Hollywood awards. Today they are due to leave hand and footprints at in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre. And later on they will receive the Pioneer Award from the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.
They are naturally asked about casting the next James Bond, to which Barbara Broccoli replies:
The thing is, it’s going to be a couple of years off… And when we cast Bond, it’s a 10, 12-year commitment. So he’s probably thinking, ‘Do I really want that thing? Not everybody wants to do that.
Later on she says that casting a new actor in the role means they need to answer a couple of questions for themselves first:
‘Where are we taking it? What do we want to do with the character?’… And then, once we figure that out, who’s the right person for that particular reinvention?
They also talk about the upcoming TV show, 007’s Road to a Million, and how there will be no Bond series streaming on Amazon. The biggest shock was when Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy quit MGM earlier in he year. As yet no successors have been announced. Broccoli says:
It was a real blow when we lost Mike and Pam… I mean, that was just – you know, we’ve had a roller coaster ride over the years with MGM and United Artists and all that stuff, for many, many years. There’s been a lot of ups and downs and we were so happy with their leadership and so looking forward to smooth sailing. And then a hurricane came and things changed.
Apart from the 007 TV show the producers are involved in a non-Bond film project, Broccoli has a number of theatre projects in the pipeline and, most intriguingly, Wilson has written a TV show they are trying to set up.
Anyone expecting the next James Bond to be announced on Global James Bond Day on 5th October, the 60th anniversary of Dr No’s release, is likely to be disappointed.
Source: Variety
