Date of Award

Summer 2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Humanities

Committee Director

Avi Santo

Committee Member

Robert Arnett

Committee Member

Heidi M. Schlipphacke

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H85 S56 2009

Abstract

Financial success would seem to be the logical goal of the film industry. If the current narrative formula reaps financial rewards for a film franchise there should be no impetus for change. Yet, that is exactly what happened to the James Bond franchise in 2006, with the release of the prequel Casino Royale. Sony Corporation and the Bond film :franchise traversed similar paths. In 2005, Sony purchased MGM, which held the Bond library as well as the rights to future Bond film productions.

Sony's industrial needs differed greatly from MGM's. MGM continually recycled the Bond formula for 20 films for over 40 years, with great box office success. However, for Sony, box office receipts alone would not provide enough profit. Sony needed Bond to travel across its multiple holdings creating a synergistic convergence of its hardware and its software ( content). In doing so, Sony gambled that Bond would provide the buzz necessary for consumers to purchase the Blu-ray player and DVDs, as well as videogames. Bond's history of high-end merchandise, such as automobiles, watches and alcohol, enticed Sony even more. If fans would purchase those items, they could be persuaded to purchase the Blu-ray series as well.

In order for Sony to garner increased investment, financially and emotionally, from a larger Bond audience, it needed a shift in the previous Bond formula. Aesthetically, the new film looked edgier and grittier, but more importantly, the narrative strategy increased the Bond storyworld, deepening the understanding of Bond and offering a new lens in which to see Bond, past, present and future.

Through the use of intertextual references and the paratext, Casino Royale provided a new Bond. This thesis combines industrial analysis of convergence and conglomeration with narrative strategies of serialization, deepening storyworld and management of intertextual references. The intersection of Sony and Bond in Casino Royale provides an excellent example of the influence industrial context has on narrative strategies.

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DOI

10.25777/pmzz-hp62

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