The author who took over writing the James Bond novels from Ian Fleming has said that the franchise is in “safe hands” with the new producers.
Anthony Horowitz, who is the creator of fictional teenage spy Alex Rider and has written three 007 novels, claimed former Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli made a “mistake” killing the character off in the last film when Daniel Craig left the franchise.
It comes after Amazon revealed they had gained creative control of the British spy franchise in February, following a deal which saw Eon Productions’ Broccoli and Wilson become co-owners with Amazon MGM Studios, and step away as producers.
Horowitz welcomed the appointment of producers David Heyman, who worked on all eight film adaptations of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and Amy Pascal, who is best known for the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, to spearhead Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming 007 film.
Horowitz told BBC One programme BBC Breakfast: “I think Barbara Broccoli did an absolutely brilliant job in the years that she was in charge, but David Heyman, who I have met in the past, is a fan.
“He’s the man behind the Harry Potter films, and he is probably our most successful producer if not (just) in the UK, in the entire world.
“And I do think (the film) with him and Amy Pascal is going to be in safe hands. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.
“I do think it was a mistake, if I may say so, to kill Bond at the end of the last film, and I regretted seeing that, because Bond, you can’t kill him, he is an icon. He is a legend. He is so much fun. He was a huge part of my life.
“But that’s sort of a hurdle they’re gonna have to overcome, probably, I imagine, by ignoring it completely. But I’m positive I can’t wait to see what they do next.”
Alex Rider author Anthony Horowitz (Ian West/PA)
PA Archive
He also said that he thinks “audiences do very quickly buy into the new actor”, and called it a “major cultural event in this country”.
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Craig, 57, delivered his final performance as the British Secret Service agent in No Time To Die last year, with his successor not yet named.
Horowitz, who was commissioned by the estate of Fleming to write 2015’s Trigger Mortis, 2018’s Forever And A Day, and 2022’s With A Mind To Kill,added that he thinks it is important to focus the Bond books in the “correct time”, the 1950s and 1960s, and write them with “the attitudes of those times”.
“So the things we’re talking about, and the misogyny … the sexism, the racism, all the isms … we see in James Bond, weren’t considered to be so terrible, and if you write the book in the context of that time, I think there’s absolutely no harm in doing it,” he added.
“I’m against and opposed to the idea of burglarising books, changing books, cutting things out that offend us now, because I think that by looking at your books, we realise how far we’ve come, how much more sensitive and aware we are, how much smarter we are than we were then.
“And so I think the two can be together as long as you have the context and you understand that’s not how we do things now.”
Wilson and Broccoli from Eon Productions had produced the franchise since the death of Albert “Cubby” Broccoli.
The official film franchise had been controlled by members of the Broccoli family, either single-handedly or in partnership with others, since the first 007 movie Dr No in 1962.
