Our Bond 25 primer

Image for the official James Bond feed on Twitter

We’re almost halfway through 2017. Here are a few things to keep in mind regarding Bond 25 (whenever it comes out).

Ultimately, Eon Productions doesn’t spend its money; it spends *other people’s* money

Eon Productions doesn’t finance James Bond movies. Studios finance the films.

Eon may incur some upfront costs, such as scripts. But once a studio (or studios) approves it, Eon gets paid back.

Back in the day, Albert R. Broccoli and his then-partner Irving Allen financed The Trials of Oscar Wilde. It was a financial disaster. Broccoli never attempted that again. United Artists, later Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, later MGM and partner studios, paid the 007 bills.

You can’t distribute a movie until somebody can actually do so

Right now, there is nobody to actually distribute a James Bond movie.

MGM (which controls the 007 franchise with Eon) doesn’t have a worldwide distribution operation following its 2010 bankruptcy.

The last four Bond films have been distributed by Sony Pictures. But, at the moment, Sony has no contract to do another.

The New York Times reported two months ago that Sony and four other studios want to snag the next Bond production deal. But until a deal is actually struck that’s so much pish posh.

Movies with budgets of $200 million or more don’t get into gear with a snap of the fingers

There are 007 fans who believe (probably more as a matter of faith than fact) Eon has a crew and cast ready to go. Right now. This moment. As if a 2018 release for Bond 25 is a certainty, the same way the sun raising in the East is a certainty.

It doesn’t work that way. No matter how strong the faith.

It has been more than three months since Baz Bamigboye reported in the Daily Mail that Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been signed to cook up a Bond 25 story.

Even if Purvis and Wade had a first-draft script right now things would only be starting. John Logan had a first-draft script for SPECTRE in March 2014. The movie didn’t begin filming until December 2014. And that only happened after Purvis and Wade were summoned back by Eon to revamp Logan’s script.

If you want to believe Bond 25 is just around the corner, go right ahead. Here at the blog, we’ll watch to see how things develop. If there’s a sudden surge of actual news, the blog will write about it.