Jeff Bezos reportedly interceded to oust Barbara Broccoli from James Bond franchise

This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which reiterates in a new piece how the MGM brass struggled to collaborate with Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. No progress was made to relaunch the franchise following No Time To Die, and the stalemate might’ve continued if Broccoli hadn’t drawn Bezos’ ire. After The Wall Street Journal reported in December 2024 that Broccoli had told friends the Amazon executives were “fucking idiots,” Bezos “read her quote in the Journal and got on the phone and said, ‘I don’t care what it costs, get rid of her,'” an insider claims to THR. The source confirmed “that what Bezos ended up paying for the franchise was close to a billion dollars.”

Perhaps the buy out was inevitable anyway, as the relationship between the producers and the studio seemed untenable. But their departure and Amazon’s control opens a new can of worms. When asked in a Reddit AMA if he’d ever consider working on a Bond project (via Variety), Longlegs director Oz Perkins replied, “No, because fuck Jeff Bezos.” And Conclave director Edward Berger told Variety he was “100%” interested in working on Bond before, but he’s not so sure now. “Barbara Broccoli is no longer doing it and she is at the heart of this project, so I think it’s something different. I don’t know. Things have changed. We will certainly miss her very much,” he said, but “now it’s a different equation. I don’t know what the future is going to look like. I am going to think about it if anyone calls me, but Barbara is at the heart of this. If she is no longer there it becomes a different thing.” No doubt Amazon’s big bucks will entice someone to take the helm—but will the product be any good?