A Second Generation Revives 007

By Jeff Chu Sunday, Nov. 10, 2002
    • Some people grow up watching Bond; if you're a Broccoli, you grow up making him. EON, the production house behind 007, has been a family business since Albert (Cubby) Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who produced the first nine films together, set it up in 1961. Today a second generation of Broccolis — Cubby's daughter Barbara and stepson Michael Wilson — runs the London-based outfit. They zealously protect the Bond tradition, but they've also brought the once fading franchise forward. "They've re-examined the character and focused on who Bond is — not just what his world is like," says John Cork, co-author of James Bond: The Legacy.

    The two were groomed for the job. Michael had an uncredited part in Goldfinger, and by the 1970s he was helping with scriptwriting. Barbara was "a general dogsbody on set from the time I started," recalls Roger Moore. By 1985 she was an assistant director on A View to a Kill, a film Michael co-wrote and co-produced. But the franchise, though still profitable, was flagging — the last three films in the '80s were the worst box-office performers of the series. In the early 1990s an ailing Cubby relinquished more control, and 1995's GoldenEye was the first Bond co-produced by Barbara and Michael (and the first with Pierce Brosnan). It was 007's best box office since Moonraker in 1979.


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    Broccoli and Wilson have maintained the momentum, with bigger budgets and global talent such as Asian action queen Michelle Yeoh and the enigmatic French actress Sophie Marceau. At MGM, 007's financier and U.S. distributor, vice chairman Chris McGurk insists that "everything is really mutual in terms of approvals," but the studio's only contractual power is to green-light (or not) a film. All else, from script to cast to crew, is up to EON.

    One industry gripe about this structure is that it breeds inertia. The Broccolis, says a studio insider, "are very adamant about the things James Bond can and cannot do." A suggestion that always gets vetoed is for new larger-than-life villains. "They always say, 'James Bond is the hero,'" says an MGM exec. "No one can overshadow him."

    For Cubby, making Bond a family business meant a personal touch — cooking spaghetti for cast and crew or flying an actor's hair stylist in on the Concorde. "He was a Big Daddy figure," says Lois Chiles (Holly Goodhead in Moonraker). But the Mr. Nice Guy routine stopped at the office door. "You felt that he was on your side," says Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 films. "Except when it came to the money. Then he'd fight with your agent for every last penny."

    Cubby's success won him respect in Hollywood — in 1982 at the Oscars, he received the Irving Thalberg award — and every studio wishes it had such a lucrative franchise. But the family is deemed a niche player. Cubby did make more than 20 non-007 films, but only one was a hit: 1968's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, also based on an Ian Fleming work. The family has a stage version of Chitty playing in London. But Bond is the core of the business; they'll continue, says Wilson, "as long as people want the product."

    The real test of the Broccoli-Wilson era will come when Brosnan hangs up his Walther PPK. The next Bond will be the first not chosen by Cubby, who died in 1996. Barbara's standard reply on the subject of succession is always, "That's like walking down the aisle and being asked who your next husband will be." Brosnan will return for the next film but is noncommittal on a sixth. "It's hard to plan," he says. "Not knowing what's around the corner is one of the joys of being an actor." And the curse of being a producer, even when you're working with 007.