after reading your thread, i think MGM is a bit too expensive for 9billion that amazon is about to pay
Agreed.
Vin Diesel must have the Midas touch or something. He’s turned throwaway crap like XXX, Pitch Black, and Fast and the Furious into two viable franchises and one mega-franchise.
I believe WB still has the rights to Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.
Ah, but do they own the NFTs of it?!
Why would they go down for picking someone like the best James Bond?
The only thing I’ve ever seen Timothy Dalton in was his brief run in Doctor Who as Rassilon, and that performance alone is enough to make me go to bat for him being the Best Bond.
You sure about that?
Never saw Hot Fuzz!
edit: wait, he was in Rocketeer. Where he was also incredible. My defense of him as Best Bond without having seen him as Bond stands.
Bond is an interesting case study, simply because he was created and exists of a different era.
Not to put too fine a point on it but, post Me Too movement particularly, some of the trappings of the franchise have aged exceedingly poorly. Not that I don’t enjoy watching some of the older films! It’s just that there is a little bit of cringe with watching the older ones.
Where do you move the franchise forward from here, and what does Bond look like in the future? There is no one unified aspect of Bond, each actor and series brought out different aspects. Brosnan looked the part like few others can, and had charm to spare, but dear god did I hate some of the stupidity of the writing in several of his films. Craig cut back massively on the absurd and contrived gadget based progression, which I liked. But his entire arc was basically New Guy to Too Old For This Shit in a hurry. And only half of his films are good. When good, they are among the best. But the bad ones are unforgivable in that they become boring. Spectre I fell asleep watching. Twice. You really have to be bad for that to happen, but there it is. Bond was boring.
I don’t know, and I’m not sure MGM does either, what Bond will be in 10 years. It’s been so many things over the years, which direction they pick next will set their course.
I don’t think Pitch Black or XXX are viable franchises. Someone thought they might be, and made sequels which quickly revealed they weren’t.
He was great in Penny Dreadful too. That show had a great cast that was really wasted on a mediocre show. Much like how Dalton was a great choice for Bond, wasted on a couple of mediocre films, actually.
Agreed, though with the caveat I’d still take either Dalton film over most of Brosnan’s work (especially Die Another Day) and most of Moore’s too. Both tended to veer too far into ridiculous cheesy gadget camp.
Timothy Dalton was also perfect in Chuck.
(As for Bond, I loved him in Living Daylights, but I hated License to Kill so much. Bond going after a drug dealer. Ugh. On the other hand, I rewatch Bond movies so much, and over time I’ve started to like License to Kill too).
Yes, Dalton’s movies were just at a weird time for Bond, coming off of two* long-time actors established as classic at the same time as other action movie franchises were having banner decades. I’m confident there would’ve been no need for Brosnan** had Dalton’s movies and the surrounding legal situation been better managed. Keep in mind Dalton quit, and refused to be Bond multiple times going back to Lazenby (I think.) He wasn’t some random fill-in.
The transition to Craig also came at a weird time for action movies (essentially, what to do about Jason Bourne) but Craig got to precede many more Bonds, so transitioning wasn’t as weird for the public, the movies were much better managed, and the marketing has been superb.
*mostly
**not that I begrudge him at all being Bond, sincerely!
Not to mention his last pet project was Bloodshot, which he wanted to turn into a franchise.
Okay, add me to the camp that says previous Bond actors should come back as Bond villians!
Here is Craig as a future Bond Villian!
And we have a deal.
I’m going to walk this back a little bit, as I had mistakenly thought MGM was a public company. It seems only the resorts business is listed, and may not have any connection with the studio any more. I still think it’s unlikely to close before October, but it’s definitely going to take less time than if it were public. Amazon’s probably big enough as well that its own shareholders don’t need to approve it. There’s also a bit more leeway for management to accommodate Amazon’s wishes ahead of closing.
Regulators need to take a look at it, too.