Producers Maintain Their Family Bond with 007

[James]

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/produ ... 201056195/#

Producers Maintain Their Family Bond with 007

Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson build on the lucrative franchise their father built

Dave McNary

In an era when studios are increasingly relying on franchises to boost their bottom lines, it’s no small feat to be the gatekeeper of the longest-running film series in Hollywood history.

For nearly two decades, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the daughter and stepson of the late James Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, have managed to keep the suave Agent 007 relevant to modern-day audiences in the face of significant competition from other high-octane action franchises — and studio turmoil that put Bond on hiatus more than once. The two have survived numerous regime changes at Bond’s home base, MGM, as they’ve fought to keep the Broccoli family business intact.

Broccoli, 53, and Wilson, 71, who reside in London and are being honored Jan. 19 by the Producers Guild of America with the David O. Selznick Award for lifetime achievement, have protectively watched over Bond as a team since 1995, and guarded the legacy of their Long Island-born father, who went from being a one-time hawker of jewelry and caskets to a larger-than-life impresario and producer of big action films. The pair have produced the last seven Bond films including 2012’s $1 billion-grosser “Skyfall.”

They seamlessly stepped into the role that Cubby Broccoli initiated in the early 1960s when he and partner Harry Saltzman brought the British spy series based on Ian Fleming’s books to the silver screen, and built the fictional sexy secret agent man into a global star and pop icon. Over the past half-century, 23 Bond films have amassed close to $5 billion in domestic ticket sales (adjusted for inflation), and the next installment will go into production this fall. Since the release of the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” in 1962, six different actors have played the character: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and, currently, Daniel Craig.

The producers, who have unprecedented creative control over the franchise and a sizable ownership stake, admit that the challenge is to satisfy traditionalists while keeping Bond fresh. Nine years ago, they were engulfed in a media firestorm over the selection of the younger Craig to succeed Brosnan in 2006’s “Casino Royale”; skeptics said Craig was too short (he’s 5-foot-11) or too blonde. But audiences around the world ultimately embraced the actor as the new Bond.

“The whole Internet thing kind of exploded,” Barbara Broccoli recalls. “Thank goodness, Daniel didn’t get rattled. We didn’t get rattled, and we just continued making the film. And it turned out to be a bloody good film, so everybody kind of shut up after that.”

The three latest Bonds with Craig have been by far the most successful, combining for $2.2 billion worldwide. Broccoli says Craig has brought a new dimension to the character with his humanity and sense of emotional conflict. Over the years, Bond has evolved from a suave, vodka-martini-sipping ladies’ man with a cheeky sense of humor to a complicated assassin with a darker psychological profile.

“It’s made it much more like the books and made the character of the books come to life,” says Broccoli. “In the books, Bond is very much an internal thinker, and it’s very hard to translate that to films, because he doesn’t verbalize the way he’s feeling. But with Daniel and the complexity of the character he’s reinvented, you have a lot more ability to go into the emotional part of the character.”

There was a four-year gap between 2008’s “Quantum of Solace” and “Skyfall,” due to MGM’s financial instability. The studio reorganized via bankruptcy in late 2010, brought in new management led by co-chairmen Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum (who has since resigned), and production on “Skyfall” began a year later.

“There’s no one more hands-on from a producing standpoint than Barbara and Michael in every aspect of the process from cradle to grave,” says Barber. “‘Skyfall’ ranks up there with the highlights of my career. When I saw the first assembled cut, there was a great sense of ‘We’ve got it.’”

For Broccoli and Wilson, though, there’s always the bigger picture that’s been drawn over more than 50 years — underlined when Craig participated in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London.

“All you saw was Daniel’s ankle as he got out of the taxi, and the whole place erupted,” Broccoli recalls. “They knew it was James Bond. It was just an extraordinary feeling, that Bond is so much of the current culture that he could be so instantly recognized. Then when (the cameras) went into Buckingham Palace, I’m sure they were expecting Helen Mirren but when it was the real queen, the roof went off.”

As for the films themselves, with their potent combination of guns and glamour, the Bond franchise has set the standard for inventiveness in action pictures, with such famous sequences as the Istanbul roof chase and the digitally created Komodo dragons in “Skyfall.”

“We like to have a couple of those moments where we say, ‘Only in a Bond movie would this happen,’ and the Komodo dragon scene was one of them,” Broccoli notes. “It always is a challenge, particularly when you’re starting with a new director or writer and brainstorming. They say, ‘What about this?’ and we say, ‘We did that in ‘Live and Let Die.’ There is a whole catalog of stuff you have to kind of avoid because it’s already been done.”

Broccoli and Wilson have approval over every script, director and star as well as marketing materials including trailers, TV spots and one-sheets. Steven Jay Rubin, author of “The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia,” says it’s remarkable that a single family has managed a movie brand so long — far longer than any other in cinema history.

“They’ve had to be innovative,” Rubin notes. “They’ve been challenged by ‘Lethal Weapon,’ ‘Indiana Jones,’ ‘Bourne,’ ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Oceans,’ and they have to keep topping themselves. It always has to have a hipness to it.” The producers also broke with Bond tradition in 1995 when they agreed to hire Judi Dench to play Bond’s boss, “M,” previously a prickly, authoritative character always played by a man.

Michael Apted, who directed 1999’s “The World Is Not Enough,” says the duo never rest on their laurels. “They’re heavily involved in every aspect,” he recalls. “At one point, I said, ‘Bond would not do that,’ and they said, ‘Yes he would,’ and I thought, ‘Well, they’ve done 19, so they know better.’ ”

Apted lauded the producers’ choice to reinvent M as a female. “It turned out that they wanted performances from women that would bring in female moviegoers. So there was a female villain in a larger role, and Judi Dench’s M was much more active.”

Wilson began working for Eon Prods., a subsidiary of Danjaq (the Bond holding company named for the wives of Cubby and Saltzman) in 1972, a decade after “Dr. No”; Broccoli joined Eon in its publicity department in 1977 for “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Wilson began producing the films in 1984 with his stepfather until 1995, when Cubby Broccoli was replaced by his daughter Barbara for “GoldenEye.” (Cubby died in 1996).

Barbara Broccoli and Wilson have remained assiduously low-key, granting few interviews. “There’s a lot to live up to,” Wilson muses. “You are always competing with yourself. And it’s a public property in the way people feel about him — they’re very faithful to their Bonds.”

It’s also a year after “Skyfall” became one of only 17 films to gross more than $1 billion. Broccoli is quick to give the credit to her father and those who have worked on every Bond film. “Way back with ‘Dr. No,’ Cubby, Saltzman and (director) Terence Young created a whole new genre of films, and this was an extraordinary thing,” she notes. “So it’s always a challenge for us to keep with the tradition of Bond but continually refresh it and make it feel cutting edge.”

Cubby Broccoli was an American and Saltzman a Canadian who brought to life a quintessentially British character, first portrayed by Connery.

“Cubby and Harry were Anglophiles,” Wilson notes. “So they brought a sort of American sensibility to it, but they loved the British. The thing is, from the Second World War on, the Americans kind of made caricatures of the British (and portray them) humorously. I think that’s a danger you can get into if you’re not careful, because Bond can be tough and ruthless.”

Barbara Broccoli believes her father and Saltzman understood the international marketplace long before the rest of the industry.

“They were the first to make pictures for the entire world as opposed to just the domestic (audience),” she adds. “If it had been British producers, I think they may have been more strict in the portrayal of a British hero for example. They might not have cast a Scottish actor (Connery), but with Cubby and Harry’s sensibility, they were much more open-minded about how to translate the books onto film and make it more appealing to an international audience.”

Broccoli and Wilson are also thankful that longtime studio partner MGM is on solid footing, saying, “We certainly have seen a number of management changes over the years, but Gary Barber’s business acumen has turned MGM around.”

The 24th Bond film goes into production in the fall. Will there be a 25th?

“Oh God,” Broccoli says with a laugh. “We hope that there will be a Bond 25. When you see that Bond has become part of popular culture, that’s very rewarding, because it’s something our dad created. He always believed it would go beyond him, and I believe it will go beyond us.”

[James]

By the way, an AJB poster (and by no means an anti-Craiger with an axe to grind) recently talked about getting Craig's autograph outside the theatre he was appearing in and said he'd estimate his height at 5'8. The PR still insists he's 5'11 though! The AJB poster also said his wife had gone right off Craig after seeing how rough he looks in the pale hairy flesh. I don't understand Broccoli's stupid comments about how 'British' producers might not have cast a 'Scottish' actor.

[Kristatos]

I don't want to derail your thread, but I've visited AJB a few times and have never quite been able to figure out its "angle". Is it an anti-Craig site, or just another MI6/CBn wannabe?

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[James]

AJB (which I think dates back to the late 90s or something) has probably been the fairest in trying to accommodate both sides and letting everyone have a say. They have people who openly dislike Craig as Bond and people who openly love him but everyone always seems to get along fairly well. A stark contrast to other places, where dissent from the party line is generally ridiculed. Frosty and Alessandra are AJB veterans and we used to have a lot of fun there during the "Craig Wars" of 2005/2006.

[bjmdds]

By the way, an AJB poster (and by no means an anti-Craiger with an axe to grind) recently talked about getting Craig's autograph outside the theatre he was appearing in and said he'd estimate his height at 5'8. The PR still insists he's 5'11 though! The AJB poster also said his wife had gone right off Craig after seeing how rough he looks in the pale hairy flesh. I don't understand Broccoli's stupid comments about how 'British' producers might not have cast a 'Scottish' actor.

He probably is that height. He must wear lifts in his Bond shoes and most of his villains are short actors for this reason. He's not much taller than his wife now and she is listed at 5'6" in height.

[Omega]

There's that picture of him with Paltrow barefoot on the beach, I think she looked taller. Also that picture of him on set if Skyfall two normal cops (in the background) made him look like a hobbit


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[dirtybenny]

Wow so many places to go with this I'll start with these two:

"The three latest Bonds with Craig have been by far the most successful, combining for $2.2 billion worldwide. Broccoli says Craig has brought a new dimension to the character with his humanity and sense of emotional conflict. Over the years, Bond has evolved from a suave, vodka-martini-sipping ladies’ man with a cheeky sense of humor to a complicated assassin with a darker psychological profile."

“It’s made it much more like the books and made the character of the books come to life,” says Broccoli. “In the books, Bond is very much an internal thinker, and it’s very hard to translate that to films, because he doesn’t verbalize the way he’s feeling. But with Daniel and the complexity of the character he’s reinvented, you have a lot more ability to go into the emotional part of the character.”

I guess scowling and mumbling your lines is considered portraying a dark complex character these days! How in the hell this stone faced gargoyle is supposed to be emoting complex emotions is beyond me.


This one though especially made me laugh!

“We like to have a couple of those moments where we say, ‘Only in a Bond movie would this happen,’ and the Komodo dragon scene was one of them,” Broccoli notes. “It always is a challenge, particularly when you’re starting with a new director or writer and brainstorming. They say, ‘What about this?’ and we say, ‘We did that in ‘Live and Let Die.’ There is a whole catalog of stuff you have to kind of avoid because it’s already been done.”

I mean really! Because that's all you've been doing since you took over! I could take up two pages listing all the cheap "homages" to the previous films you ham-fistedly shove in to your movies, like the oil covered girl in QOS posed like the GF golden girl, the way he knocks the gunman off the roof in QOS which is exactly like how Rodger knocks Shandor off the roof in TSWLM and the aforementioned Kimono Dragons she's seems so proud off being a direct rip off of LALD to name a few recent transgressions.

This woman's ego and level of self absorption never cease to amaze!

[dirtybenny]

Almost forgot the fact that every film from TWINE to SF has the exact same plot! Thanks to Purvis and Wade's hackery! I'll write a full fledged post about that at a later date.

[The Saint 007]

This one though especially made me laugh!

“We like to have a couple of those moments where we say, ‘Only in a Bond movie would this happen,’ and the Komodo dragon scene was one of them,” Broccoli notes. “It always is a challenge, particularly when you’re starting with a new director or writer and brainstorming. They say, ‘What about this?’ and we say, ‘We did that in ‘Live and Let Die.’ There is a whole catalog of stuff you have to kind of avoid because it’s already been done.”

I mean really! Because that's all you've been doing since you took over! I could take up two pages listing all the cheap "homages" to the previous films you ham-fistedly shove in to your movies, like the oil covered girl in QOS posed like the GF golden girl, the way he knocks the gunman off the roof in QOS which is exactly like how Rodger knocks Shandor off the roof in TSWLM and the aforementioned Kimono Dragons she's seems so proud off being a direct rip off of LALD to name a few recent transgressions.

Upon hitting the reset button back in 2006, the producers now have the freedom to deem everything old as new. To be fair, though, the Bond films of the past had certain things, such as boat/ski chases, that were done more than once. However, there was always a unique spin with this content that made the scenes/films stand out from each other.

To me, the reused content now is most of the time a poor man's version of the original. Compare the real-life skydiving sequence in Moonraker to the CGI skydiving of Quantum Of Solace, Bond leaping across real crocodiles in Live And Let Die to Bond leaping on a CGI Komodo dragon, or Bond's awesome signature gun (which is disguised as a camera) in Licence To Kill to the uninspired palm reader gun of Skyfall. While I understand that coming up with new ideas becomes increasingly more difficult over time, I don't see any reason to boast about reusing old content that was arguably done better originally.

[Kristatos]

Yes, it all seems as horribly self-referential as the "KHAAAAN!" bit in ST:ID. Pop (culture) is finally eating itself.

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[dirtybenny]

Saint, your absolutely right in that certain elements have been reused like you said ski/boat chases and even tricked out spy cars, and your absolutely right about it all being very cheap compared to the original. My bigger point was we never saw such unabashed self reference untill the "reboot" such we have now i.e. a girl posed exactly the same as the "golden girl".

[Omega]

, or Bond's awesome signature gun (which is disguised as a camera) in Licence To Kill to the uninspired palm reader gun of Skyfall. While I understand that coming up with new ideas becomes increasingly more difficult over time, I don't see any reason to boast about reusing old content that was arguably done better originally.

as I read that I was suddenly stuck with the idea of when Bond has to drop the gun sure he can't in theory be used by his enemy but their Q can get perfect copy of Bond Prints from the software in the gun.

[carl stromberg]

Barbara said:
“We like to have a couple of those moments where we say, ‘Only in a Bond movie would this happen,’ and the Komodo dragon scene was one of them,” Broccoli notes. “It always is a challenge, particularly when you’re starting with a new director or writer and brainstorming. They say, ‘What about this?’ and we say, ‘We did that in ‘Live and Let Die.’ There is a whole catalog of stuff you have to kind of avoid because it’s already been done.”

It was not "we" who did it - it was they, the more able member of the Broccoli family and his team.