The James Bond franchise is the longest-running film franchise in movie history and the crown jewel of MGM's current library. On November 2015, Sony Pictures' deal with MGM to co-finance and distribute new James Bond movies expired after the release of Spectre. Sony handled the deal poorly especially after the scandal of the infamous studio hack in 2014, and they only received little profit from the film, with MGM receiving the most profit, meaning the deal is all but dead. Now there's a bidding war going on over which studio would secure the distribution of the next film, consisting of Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Universal, Annapurna Pictures, Apple, and Amazon, with Sony staying in the line as well, but as time moves on and things seem to get closer, Warner Bros. (which already owns the pre-May 1986 MGM library, explaining how Bond could be a perfect fit for the studio) appears to be emerging as the frontrunner, even aggressively trying to fend off the offers from Apple, Amazon and Sony. (Hopefully they can handle the new deal better than Sony.) Meanwhile, current star Daniel Craig is reprising his 007 role for the final time; there's director talks with the producers as well after Sam Mendes left, and Dennis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) is the strongest candidate. But unfortunately, the lack of distribution rights is the reason why they're in limbo, with the movie's release date slated for November 8, 2019.