MGM may bend on Bond 24’s schedule

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signaled this week it may bend on the schedule for Bond 24, with the movie coming out in 2015, rather than 2014.

The studio held a conference call this week after releasing financial results. (You can listen to it, at least for now, by accessing a link at THE INVESTORS RELATION PART OF MGM’S WEB SITE.) Studio Chief Gary Barber was asked if Bond 24 would be out in 2014. MGM, as part of its 2010 bankruptcy, said it planned to get the 007 films back on an every-other-year schedule. Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures unit (which co-financed Skyfall and will do the same for Bond 24) has said it expects Bond 24 to be out in two years.

“We’re always hopeful on that,” the studio boss said. At the same time, he said, “We’ll put our best foot forward” on a script for the next 007 film. “If not in ’14, certainly in ’15,” he said of when Bond 24 will come out.

Earlier, in prepared remarks at the start of the call, Barber confirmed that John Logan, co-scripter of Skyfall, is working on the storyline for Bond 24 and Bond 25. He also said MGM expects Skyfall’s worldwide ticket ticket sales to exceed $800 million. They totaled $550 million earlier this week.

This is the first public show of flexibility by the studio, which controls half the Bond franchise with the Broccoli-Wilson family. Barbara Broccoli told the Los Angeles Times IN A STORY YOU CAN VIEW BY CLICKING HERE she was in no hurry. An excerpt:

“Sometimes there are external pressures from a studio who want you to make it in a certain time frame or for their own benefit, and sometimes we’ve given into that,” Broccoli said. “But following what we hope will be a tremendous success with ‘Skyfall,’ we have to try to keep the deadlines within our own time limits and not cave in to external pressures.” (emphasis added)

(snip)
Part of the reason why Broccoli and Wilson would wait before moving on to another Bond movie is because they’ve yet to settle on a future direction. “We like Daniel [Craig], obviously, and we like the way he portrays the Bond character,” Wilson said. “Our challenge is to find situations that will feel different and fresh and new and put Daniel and that character into those situations. It’s daunting.”

Neither Broccoli nor Wilson reference Logan working on the scripts for Bond 24 and Bond 25.