Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Distribution rights to one of the most well-known spy movie franchises now belong to Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) after the e-commerce giant acquired media company MGM.
The next James Bond installment could provide a boost to Amazon's media efforts and also help an electric vehicle company.
What Happened: The James Bond movies remain staples at the box office and also rank as some of the highest grossing movies in the U.K. of all-time.
Fans of the Bond films eagerly await news of a 26th movie, which will feature a new actor taking over the role of 007, but some good news for electric vehicle fans could be coming for the franchise.
Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) could be behind the technology of an electric vehicle in the next Bond movie, according to comments made recently from Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson.
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting for a Lucid production facility in Arizona, Rawlinson hinted that a long-term partnership between the EV company and auto company Aston Martin could see Lucid featured in the next James Bond movie, according to Electrek.
Through a partnership, Lucid Motors will supply its electric powertrain technology to Aston Martin. The technology will help Aston Martin launch its first fully electric vehicle in 2025.
"It is little wonder that Aston Martin chose our Sapphire technology, and certainly, Lucid will be powering the Aston Martins of the future, and a little bird tells me that maybe Mr. Bond will be powered by Lucid, as a consequence Wouldn't that be cool?" Rawlinson said.
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Why It's Important: After five movies as the lead James Bond character, Daniel Craig will no longer play the well-known spy. Betting odds show actors like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, James Norton, Rege-Jean Page and Damson Idris as the favorites to land the 007 role.
The last five Bond movies, which featured Craig, are among the highest-grossing films in the franchise ever. Here's a look at their domestic and worldwide box office gross, as reported by BoxOfficeMojo.
- 2006: "Casino Royale": $167.4 million domestic, $606.0 million worldwide
- 2008: "Quantum of Solace": $168.4 million domestic, $589.6 million worldwide
- 2012: "Skyfall": $304.4 million domestic, $1.11 billion worldwide
- 2015: "Spectre": $200.1 million domestic, $880.7 million worldwide
- 2021: "No Time to Die": $126.9 million domestic, $774.2 million worldwide
Aston Martin has been a staple in James Bond movies and is expected to be featured in the next installment. Based on the partnership with Lucid, intentions for an electric vehicle to be released in 2025 and comments from Rawlinson, Bond could be driving an electric vehicle while chasing bad guys in the next film.
Coincidentally, the CEO of another electric vehicle company, and professional and person rival to Rawlinson, owns the vehicle from one of the Bond films.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk owns one of the vehicles used in the 1977 film "The Spy Who Loved Me," which featured a car that could drive underwater. The vehicle purchased by Musk was one of eight cars used during filming, but the only one used in the underwater scenes.
Musk bought the car at auction in 2013 for $997,000.
Tesla fans may know by now that the vehicle used in "The Spy Who Loved Me" helped inspire the design for the Cybertruck electric truck, which was launched by Tesla in late 2023 with its first deliveries.
"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me' drive his Lotus Espirit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine understeer," Musk said previously.
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