MOVIE NEWS – This is the first project to be developed by Amazon after it acquired the rights to the James Bond/007 franchise.

Variety has confirmed that Amazon Prime Video has approved 007’s Road to a Million, which will premiere exclusively on its streaming service. However, this will not be a fictional series but a Bond-inspired quiz/reality show. The show will consist of 8 episodes, in which various contestants will visit the world’s most popular Bond locations, solving puzzles and endurance tests. It’s basically like The Amazing Race, but with an agent theme. The pairs will be competing for £1 million ($1.3 million) and are already accepting applications from the public.

007’s Road to a Million is produced by 72 Films, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and MGM.

It has recently been revealed that Amazon has been given the go-ahead to acquire MGM, and the rights to all of its films, including the James Bond franchise, will go into its vault. Although the project had been in the pipeline for at least four years, long before negotiations on the acquisition began, it seems that now that everything is clear on this front, Amazon has decided to give the green light to the series, which is expected to start filming later this year.

The series is intended to carry on the James Bond legacy, but the films will have to run their course. One of the reasons for the MGM acquisition is the financial success of the franchise, so Amazon will undoubtedly be stepping on the gas in that regard. Wilson and Broccoli said at the time that they would like to bid a respectful farewell to Craig’s 007, so they will officially start looking for the following lead actor in a few months.

We don’t yet know how the hierarchy of power over the saga has been preserved because if Amazon has more power than the producers, they could quickly approve spin-offs even if they don’t want to, although the box office figures certainly give them the power to keep things the same.

Source: Variety