If there may be anybody who is aware of what is going on behind the scenes within the saga over who will turn out to be the following James Bond, it’s Jennifer Salke, the worldwide head of Amazon MGM Studios – dwelling of box-office crown jewels together with the 007 and Rocky franchises.
Salke was a part of the Amazon workforce that sealed an audacious $8.5bn deal in 2021 to purchase the 100-year-old MGM and its celebrated library of 4,000 movie titles and 17,000 hours of TV programming – starting from Gone with the Wind and The Hobbit to The Handmaid’s Tale and Legally Blonde.
Nevertheless, it's the way forward for the evergreen spy that stays the most well liked matter of dialog amongst film followers.
The downside is that management of James Bond – at 62 years outdated, one of many world’s longest-running movie franchises – stays largely with Eon Productions within the UK, which is run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. Eon’s strict management even extends to who performs Bond.
Intense media curiosity has sparked a flurry of hypothesis naming almost any male actor who might fit the profile – from Idris Elba to Aaron Taylor-Johnson and, extra not too long ago, Barry Keoghan, the star of the Amazon hit Saltburn.
Daniel Craig’s final outing because the superspy hit cinemas in 2021, six months after Amazon introduced the deal to purchase MGM, and, three years on, followers aren't any nearer to understanding who his alternative is.
Salke is neither shaken nor stirred by the hiatus. “There are a lot of ideas [about potential actors] that have popped up that I thought are interesting,” says Salke. “I think there are a lot of different ways we can go. We have a good and close relationship with Eon and Barbara and Michael. We are not looking to disrupt the way those wonderful films are made. For us, we are taking their lead.
“The global audience will be patient. We don’t want too much time between films, but we are not concerned at this point.”
Salke additionally offers her model of studies alleging that, early on, she received on the mistaken aspect of Broccoli for elevating the thought of a Bond TV collection.
“It was never really raised in that way,” says Salke, who's conducting the interview by way of video at an unearthly hour within the morning from her dwelling in Los Angeles.
“When you are looking at iconic intellectual property like that, you look at what the entire long-term future might be. Of course you look at every facet.”
She provides that the MGM deal – designed to vastly enhance Amazon’s library within the streaming wars – was “definitely uncharted waters for me”.
Salke’s principal workplace is at Culver Studios in California, which as soon as housed Cecil B DeMille’s operations and the place classics corresponding to Gone with the Wind and Citizen Kane had been filmed, however she spends about a week a month travelling to elements of Amazon’s movie and tv empire.
Last week, she was within the UK and acknowledges the more and more vital position it's enjoying in Amazon’s worldwide movie and TV technique.
Earlier this 12 months, Amazon formally opened its unique studio house at Shepperton, the place it has shot the third season of The Devil’s Hour. Alongside Netflix, it has made the Surrey movie studio advanced the second largest on the planet.
And in July, Amazon acquired Bray Studios in Berkshire, as soon as dwelling of Hammer Films, to be the manufacturing HQ for its $1bn-plus Lord of the Rings TV collection The Rings of Power, and the spy thriller Citadel.
“We are increasing our investment in the UK,” she says. “There is a lot coming out of here and it started feeling very obvious to me we needed to sort out boots-on-the-ground relationships. We work as close collaborators; I’m not meddlesome, I’m not here to babysit.”
Salke was accountable for the shock choice to maneuver manufacturing of The Rings of Power to the UK from New Zealand, which has historical past because the manufacturing dwelling of big-screen diversifications of JRR Tolkien’s books.
She says the choice was partly based mostly on the “homesick factor” for stars and abroad crew, as a result of nation’s remoteness – a feeling exacerbated by tight journey restrictions whereas filming through the pandemic. “We were running into a lot of issues, people feeling like they needed to be able to get home,” she says. “And as we started to invest more in the UK, it made sense to move.”
Salke started her profession in tv, beginning out at Aaron Spelling Productions within the early Nineties, when exhibits corresponding to Melrose Place had been taking off. She moved to twentieth Century Fox Television through the interval during which exhibits together with Prison Break, 24 and Modern Family grew to become hits.
In 2018, Salke joined Jeff Bezos’s Amazon empire from NBCUniversal’s leisure division, the place she had helped revive the fortunes of the lacklustre streaming service Peacock with hits corresponding to This Is Us.
after publication promotion
Part of the explanation for Salke’s most up-to-date go to to London was to host an all-female content material showcase. At the occasion, she stated that greater than 50% of Prime Video’s world authentic TV collection and movies up to now this 12 months had been from feminine creators and administrators or had majority feminine leads.
Salke has additionally needed to handle the workers response to Amazon’s latest edict that workers will need to work within the workplace 5 days a week beginning subsequent 12 months. Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford University, printed a blogpost arguing that it might lead to droves of workers leaving, notably in sure demographics corresponding to ladies, “making for a white, young, male workforce”.
“[There has been] a kind of mixed response, which is understandable,” she says. “We’re really just going back to where we were [pre-Covid]. It’s not some regimented ‘you must be in the office five days a week’. But we expect the company to operate as an in-office workplace as we did. We want people to feel connected to a team.”
The matter of gender parity, and the broader theme of management, resonates strongly with Salke.
“I do think I am a little unique in the fact I am a very transparent, warm leader,” she says. “I demand integrity and honesty, I’m very much a no-bullshit leader as well as a no-bullshit person. I have a strong meter for that. I show up as myself and I am as honest as I can possibly be.”
CV
Age 59
Family A husband, Bert, and three grownup youngsters.
Education BA from New York University.
Pay Undisclosed.
Last vacation Summer weeks with household on the seashore in Long Island, New York state.
Best recommendation she’s been given “Don’t be afraid to have a really hard honest conversation.”
And the very best recommendation she offers herself? “Be a good listener, stay humble and use your voice.”
Phrase she overuses “Awesome.”
How she relaxes “I love to travel all over the world so I’m lucky to be in a global business. I have endless energy for it!”
