Back in April, we reported that pretty much every major studio in Hollywood—and a few smaller ones—were fighting over the distribution rights to the next James Bond movie, despite the fact that we knew literally nothing about the film at the time. The impetus for the bidding war had nothing to do with hope for the movie’s quality, though, as it was all due to the fact that Sony’s old distribution deal with MGM and Eon Productions (which own the actual rights) ended in 2015 after the release of Spectre. That means whoever can sign a deal with MGM and Eon now will be able to attach their logo to the next Bond movie, an honor that comes with surprisingly little money but is probably still pretty exciting.
Since then, MGM and Eon have slid the next Bond movie—the 25th in the series—into a November 8, 2019 release date, and Daniel Craig has finally stopped fucking around and agreed to be in one more movie. That means there’s a bit more blood in the water to attract these hungry studios, and two new ones have recently decided to join the hunt: Apple and Amazon. This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says the two companies are ready to spend as much money to get James Bond as current frontrunners Warner Bros. and Sony are, which says a lot about how eager they are to smash their way into big-budget film distribution.
Interestingly, the Hollywood Reporter story suggests that Apple might actually be looking for more than James Bond’s distribution rights, with “sources” suggesting that it might be “interested in cutting a larger rights deal or acquiring full ownership to exploit Bond’s largely unmined TV potential.” The theory is that Apple—or anyone, really—might step in and try to take over a majority of the Bond rights, which they could then use to create spin-offs and animated sequels that will eventually make everyone sick of James Bond.