Paying Attention:
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Perhaps the biggest franchise in movie history is one that started in the 1960s with Dr. No. That would be Bond, James Bond, and now rights to the Bond films are about to be re-evaluated as they go up for sale. Created by writer Ian Fleming–himself once a member of Britain’s secret service, although not quite as dashing as the agent he created–the feeling in Hollywood is that the Bond films (and franchise) have been under-exploited. This thought in an era in which every single film brand is marketed in every single channel. To their credit, the producers of the bond films, Eon Productions (owned originally by the Broccoli and Saltzman families and, since 1975, solely by the Broccoli family) have constantly renewed the franchise by updating Bond and bringing in ever-more-charismatic actors to play the English agent James Bond (James Craig is the latest). The focus on the films first does give the series a certain level of artistic purity; that could change because of the money involved. The deal for the biggest un-tapped franchise in movie history is going down soon; here’s what you need to be informed on the movie deal of the century.
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