Word: bond
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Stop him before he belts out Nobody Does It Better--but it's hard to argue with his point. The question with Die Another Day is not whether it will be a hit but how big? Predict Bond's demise at your own risk. How many of his critics has he outlived already? In Dr. No, the fisherman Quarrel warns, "It don't do for a man to tempt Providence too often." Always a gambler, 007 seems to have taken those words as a dare. And 40 years later, it's safe to say we have a response...
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...
...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...
...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...
...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...