Michael G. Wilson, the co-boss person of Eon Productions, either has, or is about to, hit a noteable milestone in the history of the James Bond film series. It hasn’t gotten much publicity. And, it’s kind of hard to precisely measure it.
In any case, Wilson’s tenure on the 007 series has now exceeded, or will shortly exceed, that of his stepfather, Albert R. Broccoli.
Broccoli was involved in the Bond series for 35 years, starting in 1961 (when Eon and its holding company, Danjaq, was formed when Broccoli and his then-partner Harry Saltzman struck a deal with United Artists) until his death in 1996.
Wilson, meanwhile, has been involved with the series for at least 36 years, from 1975 (when the Broccoli-Saltzman partnership was dissolved) to the present. Arguably, you date it further back. Broccoli’s posthumously published autobiography, When The Snow Melts, ghostwriter Donald Zec says Wilson took a leave of absence from a law firm in 1973 “to help Cubby with tax matters and the burgeoning problems with Harry Saltzman.” He was also an extra on 1964’s Goldfinger, but he didn’t hold any kind of adminstrative position. So, for our purposes, we’ll exclude that.
Once the legal fight with Saltzman concuded, the Broccoli autobiograhy says, “Michael Wilson becoming more and more becoming involved in the creative side of filming, was a great help to me as associate producer.”
Cubby’s memory is a bit faulty here. Wilson’s credit on The Spy Who Love Me, the first entry in the 007 series without Saltzman, was as “special assistant to producer,” and that credit was in small type along with others in the main titles. The film’s associate producer was William P. Cartlidge (who got his credit in big type and had the screen all to himself when his name was shown). Still, Wilson was having an impact on the Bond series starting with that 1977-released film.
A picture of Wilson and his co-boss person (and half-sister) Barbara Broccoli showed up IN A TURKISH NEWSPAPER this week with officials in Turkey after having secured permission to film in Istanbul for Bond 23.
Wilson, 68 or 69 (Wikipedia lists his date of birth as Jan. 21, 1942, while IMDB.com lists it as A YEAR LATER) wasn’t an innovator the way his stepfather was. But he has had a major impact on the series, having held the titles of executive producer (Moonraker through Octopussy), sharing the producer’s chair with Cubby Broccoli (A View To a Kill through Licence to Kill), co-screenwriter (For Your Eyes Only through Licence to Kill) and sharing the producer’s title with Barbara Broccoli (GoldenEye to present).
So this is a milestone that should be noted, even if terms and dates may vary. Here’s Wilson and Barbara Broccoli at the 2008 premier of Quantum of Solace:
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: A View To A Kill, Albert R. Broccoli, Barbara Broccoli, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, Eon Productions, For Your Eyes Only, Goldeneye, Harry Saltzman, James Bond Films, Licence to Kill, Michael G. Wilson, Michael G. Wilson's unheralded milestone, Moonraker, Octopussy, Quantum of Solace, The Living Daylights, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies |
The Spy Command 
Along with the good work Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli did on the Bond films, the series is all the better because the two of them kept it out of the hands of studio execs who notoriously always want to fall for the hip trend of the moment, i.e. Bond is an American, Bond is a woman, Bond is gay, (nothing wrong with any one of those, but those are different characters).
Also, from listening to the Bond DVD commentaries over the years, I get the impression both Wilson and Barbara Broccoli actually did work early on and were not at all credited because they were the boss’s kids.
Hopefully, their impact will be felt for decades to come.
[…] G. Wilson has been involved in producing James Bond movies for 36 years. A fantastic record, HMSS Weblog notes, which has just trumped his stepfather Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli and his 35 year stint on […]
[…] Wilson’s stepfather, Albert R. Broccoli, lived to make 007 films and, after ending his partnership with Harry Saltzman in the mid-1970s, cranked out Bond films on an every-other-year schedule from 1977 through 1989. Wilson isn’t Broccoli. We take him at his word that he finds it a grind; he has said it for too long and on too many occasions to doubt it. He’s either 69 or 70 (different reference sources place his birth year as 1942 or 1943) and he’s been involved with the film series longer than Cubby Broccoli was. […]
[…] and half-brother to Barbara Broccoli, is in his early 70s. He has worked on the Bond film series longer than anyone else, even his stepfather. Wilson has commented at various times going back to 1997 about how exhausting […]
[…] Wilson’s stepfather, Albert R. Broccoli, lived to make 007 films and, after ending his partnership with Harry Saltzman in the mid-1970s, cranked out Bond films on an every-other-year schedule from 1977 through 1989. Wilson isn’t Broccoli. We take him at his word that he finds it a grind; he has said it for too long and on too many occasions to doubt it. He’s either 69 or 70 (different reference sources place his birth year as 1942 or 1943) and he’s been involved with the film series longer than Cubby Broccoli was. […]
[…] already: Michael G. Wilson, at 74, has already spent a majority of his life in Bondage, longer than anybody else associated with the franchise. Over the past 20 years, he has commented more than once about the strains of the […]
[…] a result, Wilson has been involved with the franchise longer than anyone, including his step-father, Albert R. Broccoli, the co-founder of Eon Productions and its parent […]