‘Playing Monopoly with real buildings’

Image for the official James Bond feed on Twitter

For almost a year, there was supposed to be bidding by studios to be Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s partner in distributing Bond 25 and other future 007 movies. But real life has a way of intruding.

Two of the expected suitors, Paramount and Warner Bros., have seen their respective parent companies involved with real-life dramas.

Throughout much of this year, there was a fight for control at Viacom, which owns Paramount. Viacom’s CEO, Philippe Dauman, who had wanted to sell a big chunk of Paramount to outside investors, got his walking papers. Now, billionaire Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. wants to merge Viacom with CBS.

National Amusements controls both. At one time, CBS was part of Viacom. Then, they were split into separate companies. Now, they may be one again. (This FORTUNE.COM STORY has a summary of all this.)

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Time Warner, parent company of Warner Bros., has had talks with AT&T Inc. concerning “various business strategies including a possible merger.” According to the Bloomberg story, citing “people familiar with the matter,” Time Warner would be willing to sell for the right offer. The company rejected an offer from 21st Century Fox, parent company of 20th Century Fox, in 2014 for $75 billion.

Why should 007 fans care? Change of ownership or major structural change tends to be unsettling. It’s harder to make long-term moves if your company’s ownership may change. The separate intrigue at Viacom and Time Warner, may affect the ability of Paramount and Warner Bros. to do a Bond deal with MGM.

For now, there is nobody to release Bond 25. Sony Pictures, through its Columbia brand, has released the last four 007 films. But its most recent contract expired with SPECTRE.

At this point, neither the Viacom-CBS merger nor an AT&T-Time Warner deal have occurred (AT&T and Time Warner declined to comment on the Bloomberg story).

Still, all this wheeling and dealing recalls a line from Diamonds Are Forever about how reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte was said to be “playing Monopoly with real buildings.”

UPDATE (Oct. 21): The Wall Street Journal reported today that AT&T is in “advanced talks” to acquire Time Warner and that a deal could be reached as early as this weekend.

UPDATE II (Oct. 21, 10:20 p.m. ET): Reuters reported Friday night, citing people it didn’t identify, that AT&T has reached “an agreement in principal” to acquire Time Warner for $85 billion.

UPDATE III (Oct. 22, 7:40 p.m.ET): AT&T announces it has agreed to acquire Time Warner for $107.50 per share for a total of $85.4 billion. Time Warner shareholders will receive half in cash and half in AT&T stock, according to the statement disclosing the sales accord. AT&T said it expects the deal to close before the end of 2017.

Craig’s post-007 career looking promising, Vulture says

Daniel Craig and Aston Martin DB5 in a Skyfall publicity sill

Daniel Craig is setting himself up for a good post-007 career, whenever that may be, the Vulture entertainment news blog says.

The article, by Kevin Lincoln, is more an analysis than a news story. The blog, part of New York magazine, says three projects comprise “a solid triptych of projects that might begin to usher Craig into the next wave of his career, should he decide to give up martinis and gunplay for good.”

The three are Logan Lucky, a heist movie that was in production this fall; Purity, the 20-episode limited TV series on Showtime set for production in 2017; and Kings, a drama about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Kings is listed as in development at IMDB.com, with information only available on the professional part of the website. The Deadline: Hollywood entertainment website reported this summer that Craig was in early talks about the project.

Vulture also argues that Craig is benefiting from the rise of comic book-based films.

“With that shift also came an expectation that most major, and even serious, actors would also have their own franchise, making Bond likely less of an albatross for Craig than it might’ve been for his predecessors, who worked in eras when those types of ongoing character obligations weren’t nearly as common,” Lincoln wrote.

Just when Craig’s post-Bond career will start isn’t known. The 48-year-old actor said earlier this month in New York that no decisions have been made about Bond 25, although he said he’d miss the Bond role.

“There’s no conversation going on because genuinely everybody’s just a bit tired,” Craig said at The New Yorker Festival on Oct. 7.

Also, the 007 franchise is in a bit of a hiatus. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which isn’t big enough to release its own films, hasn’t yet struck a deal with another studio to distribute future Bond movies. Sony Pictures has released all four Craig 007 movies but its most recent deal expired with 2015’s SPECTRE.

To read the entire Vulture analysis, CLICK HERE.