James Bond movies always start with :-
Albert R Broccoli presents, which is the name of the producer of Bond movies nicknamed “Cubby”. Although he is no more and his heirs produce the movies, his name has become synonymous with Bond movies. Till now 27 films have been made under this franchise (one is due for release delayed because of Covid 19 problem) and 25 of them have been produced by Broccoli’s company. Only two films were made by other producers, Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again. Casino Royale was more of a comic take with the skinny David Niven playing Bond. t was made again a few years back with Craig Daniel playing Bond.
Albert Romolo Broccoli was born in New York but his family later shifted to Florida. After his father’s death he moved back to New York to live with his grandmother.
After doing a few odd jobs Albert joined the film industry at the lowest level, working as a gofer on Howard Hughes’ 1941 movie, The Outlaw, starring Jane Very soon he and Hughes became good friends and Broccoli soon rose to be assistant director by the time the US joined World War ll.
In the early 1950s Broccoli moved to London where the British government provided subsidies to films made in Britain with British cast and crew. He formed a production company with Irving Allen, Warwick Films. This company produced a series of highly successful films for Columbia Pictures.
By this time Ian Fleming’s spy novels had become quite popular and their protagonist, the flamboyant and daredevil James Bond seemed like an ideal material for making films. But when Broccoli tried to purchase the rights he came to know that the rights had already been purchased by the Canadian producer Harry Saltzman who was not prepared to sell them. But after negotiations he showed willingness to be a partner of Broccoli. The duo formed the production company EON Productions and it’s holding company Danjan LLC.
The choice of playing Bond fell on the Scottish actor Sean Connery. The first film’ Dr No’ was made in 1962, which was based on Fleming’s fourth novel written in 1957.Swedish-American seductress Ursula Andress played Bond’s lady love. Made on a moderate budget, the film was a moderate success. But the second film’ From Russia With Love’ was a blockbuster, after which Bond movies grew in cost and cast and have since been magnum opus. The action, locations and special effects kept on becoming costlier but the income also grew equally.
By the 1960 Albert had put all of his energies in Bond series while Harry Saltzman’ s interest continued to be in other films apart from the series of James Bond . This created differences between the two partners and Saltzman finally opted out of the company. Now Broccoli had full control over EON and after his death his heirs got the control .
He was a thoroughbred horse racing enthusiast who won the 1993 Breeders’Cup Juvenile in California.
Broccoli died in 1996 at the age of 87 of a heart attack. An autobiography was published posthumously in 1999, titled ‘When The Snow Melts’.