No script. No replacement for Daniel Craig. And disastrous meetings about cashing in on the franchise. The battle royale between Amazon and powerful 007 producer that’s left the next Bond film on ice

He was pushed out of a plane and still managed to grab a parachute from his enemy in Moonraker.

In Live And Let Die he escaped a lake full of crocodiles by using the reptiles as stepping stones. And who can forget the Lotus Esprit sports car that spectacularly turned into a submarine during a chase in The Spy Who Loved Me?

James Bond has always been adept at overcoming impossible odds and defeating the world’s most ruthless criminal enterprises.

However, 007 is now confronted with a new enemy, who according to critics is just as ruthless and bent on world domination as old enemies such as Blofeld, Specter and Smersh.

And this time it’s not just fiction. Corporate giant Amazon, owner of the film studio that makes Bond films, is locked in a titanic battle with the powerful Broccoli family, which has creative control over the world’s most famous spy.

This explains why no new film has been released more than three years after 007’s last appearance in No Time To Die. Worse still, the Broccolis revealed, there is no script and no Bond lined up to replace Daniel Craig after the bizarre decision to kill him off in the most recent film.

Nearly three years after retail giant Amazon, namely its online TV and film streaming arm Prime Video, paid £5.2 billion to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios to get its hands on the lucrative Bond rights, the relationship of the company with the family overseeing the franchise has reportedly all but collapsed.

Because it’s the Broccoli family, not MGM, that makes the important decisions about 007 – like who plays him and in what kind of movie.

Meanwhile, Barbara Broccoli, who inherited the mantle of the real “M” in Bond’s life from her late film producer father Albert “Cubby” Broccoli nearly thirty years ago, has such a low opinion of Amazon that – according to the Wall Street Journal – she has told friends, “These people are fucking idiots.”

It seems the British-American director is worried about what Amazon might do with her beloved spy creation, writer Ian Fleming, in terms of embarrassing commercial spin-off projects.

Even before Amazon bought MGM, she had reportedly turned down Bond TV series, video games and even at least one themed casino. She and her stepbrother, 82-year-old Michael Wilson, who is nearing retirement from their British company Eon Productions, believe the film character is far too valuable to be subjected to the cold-blooded commercial whims of the company Jeff founded. Bezos.

Bezos – who has coincidentally drawn occasional comparisons to a Bond villain with his lazy right eye and vast fortune – has created an empire ruled by algorithms. The television and film division decides what to make not based on flashes of inspiration or risk-taking, critics say, but on the numbers that computer programs predict will be popular.

This, insiders say, is anathema to Ms Broccoli, 64, who took a leading role in the controversial – but ultimately highly successful – choice of Craig as Bond.

Some of his five films were certainly better than others, but – along with prestigious writers and directors like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sam Mendes – gave a much-needed rejuvenation to a tired franchise. (Amazon insiders say the company doesn’t like to take risks and would never have hired a relatively unknown actor like Craig for the role).

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at the 2022 premiere of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power

On the other hand, Amazon’s own attempts to “rejuvenate” franchises have not been as successful. JRR Tolkien fans were outraged by Amazon’s take on Middle-earth in the $1 billion Lord Of The Rings prequel, The Rings Of Power series. It was maligned for featuring politically correct storylines and endless diversity casts that were never in the books.

More worryingly, some Silicon Valley followers are even concerned about whether they should glorify 007 – a murderer and notorious womanizer (whose car preferences show an inexcusable lack of environmental awareness) at all. A female Amazon employee silenced the room when she announced during an internal meeting, “I have to be honest. I don’t think James Bond is a hero.’

Ms Broccoli is reportedly happy to consider the next Bond being black – some younger members of the Broccoli clan say he should better reflect multicultural Britain – although she insists the actor should be male and British. (Pierce Brosnan is Irish, but maybe that was considered close enough.)

She has said that choosing an actor to play Bond is as important as choosing a husband. Ms. Broccoli is known to exert a profound influence on the production of Bond films, monitoring stunts and special effects and keeping an eye on the plots. For example, one of her rules is that Bond rarely shoots first. Since the first, Dr. No in 1962, Bond films have earned an impressive £6 billion at the box office, so their appeal on Amazon is obvious. The Wall Street Journal reported that before Amazon bought MGM, Prime Video’s US head, Mike Hopkins, assured senior colleagues that he could win over Ms Broccoli and convince her to let them do more to exploit the Bond ‘brand’ .

There were reportedly later discussions at Amazon about possible spin-offs such as a James Bond TV series, one about Miss Moneypenny and a third show about a female 007. It’s not hard to figure out what Fleming or his equally unreconstructed fictional creation would have thought about this.

Ms. Broccoli was similarly shocked and unmoved by such suggestions, which reminded Amazon of the contract that gave her creative control, friends said.

And the relationship did not improve when Amazon entrusted its side of the negotiations to Jennifer Salke, a female executive. Ms Salke reportedly irritated Ms Broccoli at an early meeting by calling Bond “content” for his streaming service. Ms. Broccoli’s use of such a “sterile” term was a “death blow” to the relationship, a friend told The Wall Street Journal.

Barbara Broccoli at the premiere of Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool in 2017

She and her stepbrother are also said to have been frustrated at never being able to speak to senior managers at Amazon, a £1.8 trillion company estimated to be the fourth most valuable in the world.

After the deal closed and Amazon acquired MGM in the spring of 2022, a meeting was held to discuss new shows and films that could exploit the studio’s impressive back catalog. But for executives, the reality of the Broccoli’s susceptibility had set in.

A ten-page memo was distributed listing various ways to “maximize MGM’s content capabilities and acquisition of the MGM library.” But next to Bond, the memo simply said: “TBD [To be decided]’ and ‘on hold pending larger discussions’.

These discussions have apparently yet to yield positive results. In the years since selling MGM, despite all the billions it spent on the acquisition, Amazon has produced just one Bond-related product: a reality show called 007: Road To A Million, in which teams compete in spy-themed challenges.

Critics did not take kindly, and Amazon executives were reportedly shocked when the show’s first season lost a significant portion of viewers in just the first six minutes. The host is Succession star Brian Cox. “Why on earth did he agree to this gig?” one TV critic wailed. Well, actually, he admitted, he did it because he thought it was a new Bond film.

In any case, Ms. Broccoli is working with her awkward new bedfellows on a new film adaptation of another Ian Fleming story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

What the Amazon algorithms will do to the famous flying car, Truly Scrumptious and the Child Catcher could prove even more unforgivable than anything they have in store for 007.