The chief architect of 007's continued success is producer Michael G. Wilson. With step sister Barbara Broccoli, Wilson has been responsible for the rebirth of Bond in the guise of Pierce Brosnan, picking up the producing duties from his step father, the late Albert R Broccoli who passed away in 1995. Wilson keep's Broccoli's name on the titles of the latest film with the film's production company being renamed "Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions."

But James Bond isn't the only screen hero to be a part of Wilson's life. His father is Lewis Wilson who starred as Batman in the 1943 black and white serial. "I was so little at the time," says Wilson. "He spent his life trying to live that down. There are some people who are fairly obsessive and come down and want to see him. But he just wants to forget it, pretend like it never happened. But he's still around."

When he's not producing the world's most successful film series Wilson is a major collector of photographic art. His collection of turn-of-the-century prints was part of a major show at the Getty Museum in 1995, and Wilson authored the book that accompanied the show, "Pictorialism in California: Photographs 1900-1940" (Getty Huntington 1995). His love of photography is clearly more than just a hobby, his collection will be shown again next year at a number of museums.

Choosing his off-Bond activities can be a challenge. "This time I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do." He says. "But I like to do stuff very, very different. The 'Pictoralism in California' show I did after 'GoldenEye'" Last time I taught film production at USC and taught the history of photography in the University of California system; two full time teaching jobs. This time, I'm involved with three photography shows this year." But there's a sound reason for Wilson's interests. "I find doing other kinds keeps me from being too obsessed about movie making. I think you tend to lose perspective, lose touch with the audience. Not that the things I do put me in touch, but it cleans your mind out."

The James Bond films appear on a two-year cycle and Wilson took us over the journey of the last two years since 'Tomorrow Never Dies.' "On this film we begun in September [1997] to look at writers, and around January we had Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. They had a script that was being made ['Plunkett & Macleane'] and they had a good slant. The only concept we had was let's make the villain a woman. Then Barbara Broccoli, after watching Nightline, came up with the idea of the oil in Baku. That got it into a first draft, and that's when Michael Apted came on board. At that time you start the pre-production which involves making the studio deals, design, storyboarding etc."

In 'The World is Not Enough,' Pierce Brosnan's Bond is darker and edgier. "Is he? Well, he's been duped, hasn't he," muses Wilson, talking about the film's opening in which 007 becomes an unwitting assassin. "But that's all decided between the actor and the director."

Being the producer means having the responsibility of actually delivering the finished film. In February, the production found itself caught in the middle of an avalanche in Chamonix, France that killed 11 people, and the film's helicopters and crew were pressed into rescue service. The kind of stuff that keeps a producer awake at night, for sure. "There are some scenes that are headaches," says Wilson. "But the one's you're mostly worried about are the action sequences. As far as the narrative there's never a problem. We had a lot of production headaches. We had a problem in Turkey with terrorists in the area. During the filming I went to Spain to look for alternative locations - and then picked everything up and moved it over. Those kind of things give you moments."

But worse was the distraction of fighting a lawsuit that had the future of James Bond at stake. Sony Pictures and producer Kevin McClory (who co-wrote 'Thunderball' with Ian Fleming) sued MGM and the producers for the rights to the James Bond franchise. "That was frustrating for us to be in the middle of filming and have that going on," recalls Wilson. "To this day I'm not certain what was behind it all. How much was it a fight between two studio executives? But in the end we got the injunction and forced a resolution with Sony. But with McClory there are still some issues outstanding." Indeed, McClory and MGM face off in court in February next year.

For Wilson it is familiar territory. His background, prior to being a producer, was as a tax attorney. He first became heavily involved with the Bond films back in 1976 when he lead the team that saved the Bond franchise from the financial jeopardy of then co-producer Harry Saltzman. "Harry unfortunately ended up in a situation where he was under the thumb of the bank," remembers Wilson, "and there was some financial arrangements he had made and the bank was hoping to sell his stock. Well if he sold his stock it would have opened the company to pressure from another shareholder. So it was a traumatic time for us all." Since then, Wilson has repeatedly fought off attempts by outsiders who threaten the Bond franchise.

On a lighter note, the producers' other Ian Fleming property, 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' was re-released on video this year. The fabulous car toured the country and made a guest appearance on the Rosie O'Donnel show. There are two Chitty's and it was Wilson's car that went on the road. "We bought that recently," Wilson says of the car. "We have an archive for Bond, we have a lot of props and paper documents. We've been buying up our posters. The thing was we had some things but we weren't properly archived. So we have an archive now and maybe we'll do something, travel it or maybe a permanent installation somewhere." And as for Chitty himself, Wilson's mother, Dana Wilson, Cubby Broccoli's widow, has plans to do Chitty as a theatrical musical.

This past summer, the London auction house Christies had a huge auction of 007 props and memorabilia. "We bought one thing," says Wilson smiling. "After the auction David Arnold, our composer, came up and said 'Did you see some fool paid an extraordinary amount of money for Oddjob's hat?"' Wilson laughs out loud. "Yes I did, I was the fool. You're looking at him!" But Oddjob's steel rimmed hat was more than just toy. "I thought of all the movie props, not just in Bond terms but in the history of movies, when you think about it - maybe you could get the Maltese Falcon or Dorothy's shoes, but Oddjob's hat has to rate pretty high. There aren't a lot of things you can right off the top of your head that are icons."

The Christies auction brought together a wide range of obsessive fans, paying small fortunes for pieces of film history. "I'm probably more obsessive about other things than Bond," says Wilson. "I'm a photographic collector. My obsession is focused in that direction rather than on Bond, props and parenphenalia and Bond history. I lived it, so I don't need to study it." Having said that, Wilson concedes that since he's making the films, "I have to be somewhat fanatical myself. You've got to believe in what you're doing. You can't do this and not take it deadly seriously. But you have to keep in your mind it's a movie. You don't want to hurt or kill anybody."

For the next few months Wilson and his stars will be promoting 'The World is Not Enough' around the globe. The completion of one film signals the start of the next Bond outing. Part of the settlement of the Sony lawsuit was that MGM bought back the rights to Ian Fleming's 'Casino Royale.' What plans does Wilson have for the next film? "We don't have any ideas at this point," he says, contemplating the rounds of publicity still ahead of him. "It just seems that this one's been particularly hard."

Time off for good behavior seems to be where Wilson is these days. The next Bond outing is officially slated for 2002 - that's an extra year off. What's clear is that there is a desire to break free of the two-year production cycle that has lead to two scripts that haven't lived up to expectations. The year off gives everyone time to recharge their batteries and come back with a Bond film everyone will be happy with. It's a ballsy decision. Taking a year off denies the MGM shareholders of the guaranteed revenue of $350 million for the 2001 spreadsheet - deferring that income for a whole year. And while there is luxury in the year off - with it comes the expectation of the new film delivering even more so.

That said, for Michael Wilson, he at last has something resembling a stable management at MGM. Since "For Your Eyes Only" Danjaq has been producing James Bond films for a series of revolving studio heads. However, thanks to Michael G. Wilson, you can count on him honoring the caption at the end of the film: "James Bond will return."