Apple and Amazon Join the Race to Land James Bond Distribution Rights
The race to capture James Bond is heating up as unlikely suitors Amazon and Apple have joined Warner Bros. in the fight to land the distribution rights for agent 007.
Sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that the tech giants are willing to match Warner Bros. bid as they the 007 as having untapped potential.
After the previous deal with Sony expired MGM has been looking for a deal for more than two years, and Sony, Universal and Fox also had been pursuing the property, with Warners and Sony the most aggressive.
The emergence of Apple and Amazon as a contender has Warner Bros. pushing MGM hard to close the deal. Their presence at the negotiating table would perhaps suggest that there’s more than film rights up for grabs, including the future of the franchise if MGM will sell or license out for the right price.
In terms of film franchises, nobody does it better than James Bond but in the world of Marvel and Star Wars, Bond feels underdeveloped with the focus purely limited to theatrical movies. It remains vastly under-utilized by 21st century standards, where expectations are to exploit IP across all mediums, push out merchandising for all age brackets and have spin-offs and cinematic universes.
Even if Apple and Amazon walk away from the deal empty-handed, there presence has already disrupted the tentpole movie business paradigm.
Bond 25 is due in cinemas Nov. 8, 2019.
