Licence to kill: could a James Bond horror emerge when book copyrights expire?

Character and plots of Ian Fleming’s original literary works become open for public use in most countries in 2035. Amazon may have captured James Bond, paying billions to get creative control of the super spy, but a clock is now ticking that means 007 – or at least a version of him – could escape into the wider world in a decade’s time.

The character and plots of the original literary works by creator Ian Fleming become open for public use in most countries in 2035, raising the prospect of Bond starring in rival film and TV stories of espionage, comedy or even horror. Bond is one of a host of Hollywood heroes with looming or past copyright dates – including Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse – prompting an ideas arms race between those looking to cash in on newly available global brands and rights holders creating spin-off intellectual property that remains protected.

Since Sean Connery first appeared in Dr No in 1962, the 25 films in the 007 franchise have grossed more than $7bn globally. Getting hold of the fifth most valuable franchise of all time was a major motivation for Amazon’s $8.5bn purchase of the Hollywood studio MGM, which jointly owned the rights alongside Eon Productions, in 2021, the year the last Bond film hit cinemas.

Last week, Amazon shelled out a further $1bn-plus to wrest full control from Eon, in an effort to get 007 back on the big screen. It will need to move fast before Bond potentially faces his stiffest competition yet – himself. Under UK and European law, copyright to literary creations expires 70 years after the author’s death, at the start of the subsequent year. Given Fleming died in 1964, having penned 12 Bond novels and two anthologies, Amazon has a short window of exclusivity.

“There is a real opportunity for interested parties to make use of the fact that the rights in the James Bond books will soon lapse,” says Chris Froud, a partner and patent attorney at the European IP firm Withers and Rogers. “Companies can take advantage of this by reworking plots and characters and commercialising them for a second time.”.

However, any big-screen additions to the original books remain legally protected, such as the famous 007 gun-barrel logo, characters such as Jaws, flirtatious banter with Moneypenny and clever remarks when the super spy makes a narrow escape or sees off a henchman.

From 1 January 2035, those bold enough to look to exploit “book Bond” would still be able to use the character and famous traits such as his “The name’s Bond, James Bond” motto, driving an Aston Martin, and ordering his martinis “shaken, not stirred”. But care would need to be taken not to have Bond drink Bollinger – 007’s go-to champagne in the films – as Fleming’s paper spy was a Taittinger man.

While Bond’s boss M is also a staple of the books, it is debatable whether any would-be 007 copycat creation could show Q as a gadget supremo. And any depiction of Bond’s arguably most famous adversary in the film franchise, Blofeld, would have to see the super-villain appear with hair – and without signature white cat – as he was originally presented in the novels.

“Companies will need to be cautious in how they go about exploiting Bond,” says Froud. “The James Bond films are so well known and embedded in popular psyche it would be difficult to separate this knowledge from any new works that creative companies might wish to develop based on the content of the books alone. Any mistakes could attract copyright infringement claims from the owners of the films.”.

Recent examples of the exploitation of the copyright of globally known characters suggest there are those who are willing to take such risks. When the Disney-controlled rights to AA Milne’s much-loved Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain on 1 January 2022, the Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds appeared a day later in a US parody ad featuring “Winnie-the-Screwed” – a bear who finds he has been overpaying for his phone bill.

In March 2023 a UK-based production company, Jagged Edge, felt emboldened enough to release the controversial horror film Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey. Shot over just five days, the story features Pooh and Piglet going on a murderous rampage after being abandoned by Christopher Robin.

The successful release – it made almost $8m on a budget of £20,000 – has spawned the so-called Twisted Childhood Universe, also known as the Poohniverse, to create slasher horror films based on well-known characters whose copyrights have expired. The slate of releases and upcoming films includes two Blood and Honey sequels, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, Bambi: The Reckoning and Pinocchio: Unstrung, and will culminate with an Avengers-style ensemble called Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, coming out next year.