Bond 25: An Annapurna primer

Annapurna logo

This week, various entertainment-news outlets (including Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter among others) carried stories about turmoil at Annapurna Pictures.

The company is tied to Bond 25. So 007 fans are wondering if something may be up on that front. What follows is a primer.

What is Annapurna? It originally was a production company involved with films such as Zero Dark Thirty. It was founded by Megan Ellison, daughter of tech magnate Larry Ellison.

In 2017, Annpurna branched into distribution. Its first distributed movie was Detroit, a drama about the 1967 race riots in that city. The film bombed at the box officce.

How is it tied to Bond 25? Also in 2017, Annapurna formed a distribution joint venture with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The joint venture distributes films for each of the partners. Movies generated by MGM would carry that brand. Movies generated by Annapurna would carry that brand.

In May, it was announced the MGM-Annapurna joint venture would distribute Bond 25 (an MGM-generated project) in the United States while Universal would distribute the movie internationally.

Why the concern? Annapurna abruptly has dropped a number of film projects, including a movie based about the late former Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

Annapurna “has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars of losses over the years due to some significant box office losses,” according to a Variety story (linked above) by Brent Lang and Matt Donnelly. The scribes write that Larry Ellison is exterting control to attempt to make Annapurna profitable.

Could this imperil Bond 25? No. Annapurna is one of three players (itself, MGM and Universal). The Bond 25 deal is expected to help Annpurna, because it’ll get a distribution fee, according to Variety. The entertainment site also says Universal is a likely candidate to take over U.S. distribution if necessary.

Questions for a Barbara Broccoli interview

Barbara Broccoli

The Metro website, in a story labeled “exclusive,” quotes Eon Productions boss Barbara Broccoli as saying things are just fine with Bond 25. “No, it’s film making,” she told the website. “We’re very excited about Bond and can’t wait.”

There really isn’t much more than that. The story has some background about Bond 25’s pre-production and some Broccoli quotes that previously appeared in The Guardian about how 007 will main a man. The new quotes apparently were generated thusly:

But producer Barbara Broccoli has laughed off fan worries, asking Metro.co.uk ‘concerned about what?’ when queried about the difficulties the production has come under.

Not that the blog is ever going to get the chance, but here are some questions interviewers might want to ask Broccoli if they get the chance in the future.

–You told a Hollywood Reporter podcast in December 2017 that “my heart was breaking” before Daniel Craig agreed to come back for Bond 25. Was it ever in doubt that Craig would come back? If so, when did the situation change and why?

—Why did you announce in July 2017 that Bond 25 had a release date when no distributor was lined up yet?

—Do you have regrets about the whole Danny Boyle-John Hodge situation? That appears to have cost Bond 25 months in pre-production time.

–Is the big Boyle-Hodge idea still part of Bond 25 or not?

–What can you say about Boyle’s departure from the project?

–What was the back story of how you signed on Bond 25’s new director, Cary Joji Fukunaga?

–What is it like working with MGM? The studio still hasn’t named a successor to the departed Gary Barber. What was Eon’s relationship with Barber?

–Will Bond 25 be Daniel Craig’s last 007 film? Or do you think you can get him back for future installments?

–Are intervals of four or more years what we should expect from now for the 007 film series?