James Bond Won't Return

Barbera Broccoli (60s) & Michael Wilson (80s) have just sold their copyright control on Bond to Amazon following on from it's acquisition of MGM a while ago ... but, well, it's a bit of a fire sale.  The copyright on the Bond novels has less than 10 years to run (depending on your jurisdiction maybe less). Ms Broccoli said once that they would always return to the novels before writing the next screenplay (usually with Messers Purvis & Wade) but what plots and characters really remain to be plundered?  There used to be a feeling that despite the central character being occasionally recast it was still vaguely plausible that we were following the path of one man's life.  Lazenby was younger than Connery ... but Moore was about the same age... By the time Dalton was cast Bond's floating timeline started to become questionable... But Bronson was about the same age as Dalton... But by then the 30 years of continuity was becoming burdensome so a reboot was undertaken with Craig after the rights to Casino Royale were finally acquired.  In the final film (spoiler) which featured an inversion of the plot of OHMSS Bond actually died which in retrospect may have been the Producers making a subtle hint that this would now be their swansong...
 

Of course James Bond will return but it will never be the same as he has now passed from literature into legend like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Raffles, Frankenstein etc... there will be many other iterations and interpretations but no one (or half a dozen) guiding minds.  Like Sherlock Holmes really belongs to the 19th century, Bond really belongs to the 20th and despite attempts at modernisation increasingly resembles a period piece of cold wars instead of hot wars and Anglo-America relations that had not soured.  Not to mention a time when the distinction between high resolution theatrical film and 405 line black & white domestic television was very clear ...

It cannot be understated too that whatever you think of Bond, Cubby Broccoli's antics constituted a massive boost for the British film industry employing lots of people, building new sound stages at Pinewood and making England a go to production location for American movies...

 

On the plus side perhaps given soon anyone will be able to make their own Bond film ... I will actually be the next James Bond myself...