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Creative control of the long-running James Bond franchise has been handed to Amazon MGM Studios, in a joint venture with the current owners.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson – who are the daughter and stepson of film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the man responsible for developing the Bond franchise into the success it is today – will remain co-owners of 007 intellectual property rights.

The pair own EON Productions, the company behind Bond films including Skyfall and Spectre. It has produced 25 films since 1962.

Daniel Craig plays James Bond for the fifth time in No Time To Die. Pic: MGM
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Craig played Bond for a fifth and final time in No Time To Die. Pic: MGM

The deal follows speculation over when the next Bond movie – and indeed the next Bond – will be announced.

The last film, No Time To Die, was delivered four years ago to rave reviews and box office success. It was the swansong for Daniel Craig in his performance of the lady-loving spy.

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Details of the 26th official Bond film – and its new star – are yet to be revealed.

In a statement on EON Productions website, Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios said they were “honoured to continue this treasured heritage” and looked forward to “ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world”.

Wilson said that after 60 years spent working across the franchise, he would now be focusing on “art and charitable projects”.

Brian Cox and Barbara Broccoli on the 007: Road To A Million red carpet. Pic: Ian West
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Brian Cox and Barbara Broccoli on the 007: Road To A Million red carpet. Pic: Ian West

Barbara Broccoli said: “My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli.

“I have had the honour of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of No Time To Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”

In 2022, Amazon bought MGM Studios, which distributes Bond, for $8.45bn (£6.79bn).

Since the acquisition, the streamer has held the rights to distribute all the Bond movies.

Brian Cox as The Controller in 007's Road To A Million. Pic: Amazon Prime Video
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Cox as The Controller in 007’s Road To A Million. Pic: Amazon Prime Video

In the spring of 2023, Amazon Prime Video launched Bond-themed reality show, 007 Road To A Million.

Hosted by Succession star Brian Cox, it offered nine pairs of contestants the chance to win £1m as they travelled through global locations associated with the franchise.

While no one took home the full £1m jackpot, brothers James and Joey did take £150,000. The show was met with a mixed critical reception but was given the green light for a second season.

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The 1975 star Matty Healy warns of musical ‘silence’ without small stages as he backs new UK-wide festival

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The 1975 star Matty Healy warns of musical 'silence' without small stages as he backs new UK-wide festival

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy has warned of a musical “silence” that would come without the pubs and bars that give UK artists their first chance to perform.

Fresh from headlining Glastonbury in June, Healy is backing a new UK-wide festival which will see more than 2,000 gigs taking place across more than 1,000 “seed” venues in September.

The Seed Sounds Weekender aims to celebrate the hospitality sector hosting bands and singers just as they are starting out – and for some, before they go on to become global superstars.

Healy, who is an ambassador for the event, said in a statement to Sky News: “Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture.

“Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”

Oasis, currently making headlines thanks to their sold-out reunion tour, first played at Manchester’s Boardwalk club, which closed in 1999, and famously went on to play stadiums and their huge Knebworth gigs within the space of a few years.

Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
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Oasis stars Liam and Noel Gallagher, pictured on stage at Wembley for their reunion tour, started out playing Manchester’s Boardwalk club. Pic: Lewis Evans

GigPig, the live music marketplace behind Seed Sounds, says the seed sector collectively hosts more than three million gigs annually, supports more than 43,000 active musicians, and contributes an estimated £2.4bn to the UK economy.

“The erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible,” said Healy.

“What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.”

He described the Seed Sounds Weekender as “a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas – it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”

Read more from Sky News:
Oasis photographers recall the early days
Heavy metal to reality TV: The wild life of Ozzy Osbourne

The importance of funding for grassroots venues has been highlighted in the past few years, with more than 200 closing or stopping live music in 2023 and 2024, according to the Music Venue Trust. Sheffield’s well-known Leadmill venue saw its last gig in its current form in June, after losing a long-running eviction battle.

In May, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced the £85m Creative Foundations Fund to support arts venues across England.

And last year, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee called for a levy on tickets to large concerts at stadiums and arenas to help fund grassroots venues, which artists including Coldplay and Katy Perry, and venues including the Royal Albert Hall, have backed.

But most seed venues – the smaller spaces in the hospitality sector that provide a platform before artists get to ticketed grassroots gigs or bigger stages – won’t qualify for the levy. GigPig is working to change this by formalising the seed music venue space as a recognised category.

“The UK’s seed venues are where music careers are born,” said GigPig co-founder Kit Muir-Rogers. “Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and under-appreciated.”

The Seed Sounds Weekender takes place from 26-28 September and will partner with Uber to give attendees discounted rides to and from venues.

Tickets for most of the gigs will be free, with events taking place across 20 UK towns and cities including London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leicester, Newcastle and Southampton

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Paul Gallagher, older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, is charged with offences including rape

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Paul Gallagher, older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, is charged with offences including rape

Paul Gallagher, the older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, has been charged with multiple offences including rape.

The Metropolitan Police said Gallagher, 59, of East Finchley, north London, has been charged with rape, coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of intentional strangulation, two counts of making a threat to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The offences are reported to have taken place between 2022 and 2024. The charges follow an investigation which began last year, the force added in a statement.

A woman is being supported by specially-trained officers, the statement continued.

Paul Gallagher, who is about one year older than Noel and seven years older than Liam, has never been involved in Oasis.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 27 August.

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Gregg Wallace speaks out after MasterChef sacking

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Gregg Wallace speaks out after MasterChef sacking

Gregg Wallace has spoken about his sacking from MasterChef after inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC – but insisted he is “not a groper, a sex pest or a flasher”.

Wallace, 60, has apologised after a report, commissioned by the cooking show’s production company Banijay UK, found 45 out of 83 allegations were substantiated.

In an interview with The Sun, he said: “I know I have said things that offended people… I understand that now – and to anyone I have hurt, I am so sorry.

“I don’t expect anyone to have any sympathy with me but I don’t think I am a wrong ‘un.”

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BBC reputation damaged by ‘serious errors’

MasterChef co-host John Torode also had an allegation that he used an “extremely offensive racist term” upheld, as part of the same investigation.

Torode, who insisted he had “absolutely no recollection” of the alleged incident, has not had his contract for the show renewed.

Wallace has now defended Torode, saying: “I’ve known John for 30 years and he is not a racist.

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“There is no way that man is a ­racist. No way. And my sympathies go out to John because I don’t want anybody to go through what I’ve been through.”

Former MasterChef presenters John Torode and Gregg Wallace. File pic: PA
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Gregg Wallace has defended his former MasterChef co-host John Torode (left). File pic: PA

At one point, Wallace became tearful during the interview when describing the impact of the investigation on his family.

“I have seen myself written about in the same sentence as Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards, paedophiles and sex offenders. That is just so, so horrific.”

In respect to the specific allegation of unwanted touching, Wallace denied groping a woman and said that, while he was attempting to flirt with her, he did believe the contact it was consensual.

“She gave me her phone number. I considered that to be intimacy. It was 15 years ago. Me, drunk, at a party, with my hand on a girl’s bum,” he said.

He also accepted he had briefly appeared with a sock on his private parts in front of four colleagues in MasterChef studio. But he said his is not a flasher, and people were either “amused or bemused” but not distressed.

Read more from Sky News:
Actor Micheal Ward charged with rape
Jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine dies
BBC reveals highest-earning stars

On the broader allegations about using inappropriate language, Wallace accepted the criticism and suggested that some of his conduct could be explained by his autism and his background.

“I know I am odd. I know I struggle to read people. I know people find me weird. Autism is a… registered disability. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

He also blamed his former career: “I’m a greengrocer from Peckham. I thrived in Covent Garden’s fruit and veg market. In that environment that is jovial and crude. It is learned behaviour.”

Wallace told the newspaper he is now scared to appear in public: “I go out now in a disguise – a baseball cap and sunglasses, I don’t want people to see me. I’m scared.”

On Wednesday, the BBC confirmed a series of MasterChef filmed last year, before allegations against presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode were upheld, will still be broadcast.

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