Strange as it may seem but the rights to the longest film franchise ever in history could be up for grabs and it could result in a bidding war amongst studios too. When Spectre, the 24th Bond film opens in cinemas, it will mark the end of MGM and Sony Pictures’ multi picture deal on the franchise.
According to Variety, the MGM-Sony deal kicked off with Casino Royale followed by Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and lastly Spectre. To be honest despite the partnership seemingly coming to an end, there’s no denying that both studios should be credited in revitalising the Bond franchise with four rather brilliant films.
According to reports though, it would seem that Warner Bros. could inside dips on the franchise, should it be made available due to the close relationship MGM has with Warner. Both studios have already collaborated with the highly-successful Hobbit trilogy and they’re working on the Rocky spinoff Creed as well.
But Sony shouldn’t be out for the count just yet. Together with MGM, the Bond franchise has flourished especially with Skyfall raking in over USD1.1 billion worldwide. So breaking that momentum could work greatly against MGM as well as Bond.
More importantly though, with new rights, this also could mark the end of Daniel Craig’s run as the world’s most famous secret agent. That would be a great pity too in some regards as the new direction seems to be fitting in quite well with audiences. Let’s see how this one plays out once the bidding wars begin.