Now that Spectre is out in theaters — and it’s doing quite well domestically, projected to nearly reach $75 million for the weekend — thoughts return to the questions that have been asked with increasing urgency: what’s next for the James Bond franchise? But the answer to that isn’t so simple as determining whether or not Daniel Craig or someone else steps into Bond’s shoes. [In a New York Times interview] (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/business/media/a-family-team-looks-for-james-bonds-next-assignment.html?_r=0), Bond rights-holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson talked about what’s next for Bond now that Craig may indeed be officially done with the role and the franchise’s contract with Sony Pictures Entertainment is up.
“The future is a little uncertain, but whether we stay at Sony or go somewhere else, we’ll make it work,” said Broccoli. “We are very, very protective of Bond. Bond is our baby.”
As for Craig, who has repeatedly alluded to being finished with the franchise after Spectre, Broccoli is trying to keep hope alive. “Maybe I’m in denial, but I don’t want to think about another Bond.”
If his own interviews are to be believed, Craig doesn’t want to think about himself as Bond anymore. He [told London’s Time Out] (http://www.timeout.com/london/film/daniel-craig-interview-my-advice-to-the-next-james-bond-dont-be-shit), “I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists” than do another Bond movie, though it’s important to note that that provocative statement was immediately followed by “Not at the moment.” So if Craig is “over it at the moment,” perhaps Broccoli is right to be optimistic. “Until he definitely says otherwise,” she told the Times, “I’m not going to give it another thought.”
As for the studio issue, Sony Pictures is expected to contend with Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox for the rights to the next series of Bond films. And Broccoli and Wilson are fully aware that with a new studio comes a new regime’s stamp on the franchise. “If we get the wrong partners, there are liable to be conflicts,” Mr. Wilson told the Times.
