The producers of the James Bond franchise reportedly turned down working with Christopher Nolan over the Oscar-winning director’s demand to have final cut over the film.
It was reported last week that longtime James Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have struck a deal with Amazon MGM which will let the studio take full creative control of the 007 franchise.
In a new report by Variety, sources claim that Wilson and Broccoli met with Nolan after the director expressed his interest in directing a 007 movie as the follow-up to his 2020 thriller Tenet.
Nolan wanted to have final cut over the project, but Broccoli “made clear that no director would have final cut while Bond was under her purview.”
The director instead made Oppenheimer, which became a massive box office success and won Best Picture at the Oscars. The next Bond film, 2021’s No Time To Die, was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.
The Independent has approached Nolan’s representatives for comment.
Since the Amazon MGM deal was announced, speculation has mounted over the future of the James Bond franchise.
On Wednesday, crime writer Lee Child predicted that Amazon MGM Studios will try “to dominate the entire year” with 007 spin-offs.
Child’s own Jack Reacher book series has been adapted by Amazon Prime as a series called Reacher starring US actor Alan Ritchson.
Child told BBC One’s morning programme BBC Breakfast that Bond had got “to change”.
He added: “It’s so rooted in post-war Britain, the whole idea of Bond (is about him) … being a compensation (as) we’ve lost our real power, but Bond could sort anything out.
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“The concept is dated, and it needs a shake-up. It needs refreshing. And the people that (were) looking after it before, I think, are just worn out. And so new blood, new energy is going to be good for it.”
When asked if he thought it would mean spin-offs, he said: “We’re doing a Reacher spin-off absolutely.
“And I’m sure that will happen (with Bond), because what Amazon generally likes to do is, if they get a hit, they want to dominate the entire year with it.
“And so we can imagine, I expect, a big Bond (film) production once every few years, and then a lot of like Bond origin (stories), a (Miss) Moneypenny spin-off (about the chief of the secret intelligence service’s secretary) … whatever it will be happening.”
