Before he died in 1996, producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who had guided the multibillion dollar James Bond movie franchise for more than 30 years, began giving advice to his heirs. "We have the golden egg here," he told his daughter Barbara and stepson Michael. "Don't let anybody else screw it up."

As the family's second generation of Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother, Michael Wilson, have spent the past decade heeding that counsel. Yesterday, the Broccoli family released the $150 million "Casino Royale," their 21st Bond movie since 1962's "Dr. No" -- making the suave British superspy by far the most durable movie franchise ever.

In the movies, James Bond has survived 44 years of evil villains with the help of a slick, high-tech arsenal of weapons -- watches that explode, cigarette lighters that double as grenades and the like. In Hollywood, his secret weapon has been the Broccoli family, whose fierce protection of all things Bond has itself been nothing less than explosive at times.

Over the past decade, Ms. Broccoli, 46 years old, and Mr. Wilson, 64, have managed the Bond franchise with an iron fist -- dropping actors who don't share their vision, demurring on multimillion dollar licensing opportunities that don't feel right or criticizing studio executives who rub them the wrong way.

"Michael and I have always kept our eye on the picture," Ms. Broccoli says, "and it's not about making friends."

The Broccolis owe their clout to a series of agreements struck decades ago. In 1961, Cubby Broccoli and his production partner, Harry Saltzman, bought rights to adapt most of author Ian Fleming's Bond novels and short stories into films. Mr. Broccoli in turn struck a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Inc. that gave the studio rights to produce, market and distribute Bond movies. In the mid 1970s, Mr. Saltzman sold his rights to MGM, creating the 50/50 partnership that persists today.

Cubby Broccoli's decades-old arrangement with MGM affords Ms. Broccoli and Mr. Wilson an unusual level of autonomy. As a result of a 2004 purchase of MGM by a group of investors, the Broccoli heirs must make two Bond pictures with Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose parent company, Sony Corp. of Japan, owns a stake in MGM. Although Sony must approve all creative and financial decisions, the producers enjoy a strong voice on everything from casting and directing hires to the screenplay and budget.

It is a win-win deal for the family, both creatively and financially. In addition to a fee for their work on each picture, Mr. Wilson says, the producers are entitled to share each Bond movie's profit after certain costs are recouped -- even though they don't have to kick in any production or marketing dollars. Depending on the picture and its costs, the percentage of the profit that goes to the producers and the Fleming estate could be as high as 25 percent, according to two people familiar with the deal. (Mr. Wilson describes that possibility as remote.)

Ms. Broccoli visited Bond sets as a child and worked as a production staffer while her father was alive. Mr. Wilson, a lawyer and collector of 19th-century photography, has screenwriting credits on several Bond movies and has made numerous cameo appearances in the films. In "Casino Royale," he plays a police chief who gets arrested at an outdoor cafe in Montenegro.

Contrary to conventional wisdom -- among Bond fans and Hollywood executives alike -- there is no official Bond playbook that dictates how often he must drink martinis, bed sexy accomplices or don tuxedos. "There are certain instincts we have about whether something's right for Bond or not," Ms. Broccoli says. The producers also frequently return to the original Fleming novels to refresh their memories. "We live and breathe Bond," Mr. Wilson says.

That passion often comes with a sharp edge. Executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment got a sense of the Broccoli duo's willfulness at a dinner two years ago in London at which studio chief Amy Pascal asked about their experiences in Hollywood. "I like studio executives," replied Ms. Broccoli, according to people who attended, "unless they're being a-holes."

"They're really straightforward, and I'm really straightforward," says Ms. Pascal of the producers. "We had a lot to learn about Bond. They're the experts."

The Broccolis have sparred with several generations of studio executives. One bone of contention that often arises between the family and their collaborators is whether a line of dialogue or plot device is true enough to the Bond character. For 2002's "Die Another Day," for example, director Lee Tamahori says he proposed a scene in which Mr. Connery -- the first and most celebrated Bond -- gave counsel to the then-current Bond, actor Pierce Brosnan, in a secluded Scottish castle. It was the kind of stunt cameo that would have resulted in a publicity bonanza, but the Broccolis weren't buying it. "It never passed muster, I suspect because it was too radical," Mr. Tamahori says.

For all their firm ideas, the Broccolis sometimes have been proven wrong. They argued with "GoldenEye" director Martin Campbell, he says, over whether Bond's boss, M, should be played by a woman, Judi Dench. After much debate, she got the part and has become a regular in the role. In another instance, former MGM promotion chief Karen Sortito says she had an uphill battle convincing them to insert a BMW roadster into "GoldenEye." The Broccolis didn't want to upstage Bond's traditional Aston Martin. The deal she eventually struck with the German auto maker brought in $30 million for television advertisements and free cars for the shoot. The Harvard Business School later drafted a case study on how the Bond brand helped sell BMW's new model.

After "Die Another Day," the franchise went into one of its periodic hibernations. In ramping up for "Casino Royale" -- the last of Fleming's Bond novels for the Broccolis to adapt -- the biggest decision was how to cast Bond. Mr. Brosnan was a problem because the "Royale" story finds Bond at the start of his espionage career; Mr. Brosnan, now 53, already had played the role four times.

Associates say Mr. Brosnan met Ms. Broccoli and Mr. Wilson for an awkward lunch meeting at the Santa Monica restaurant Drago to hear the news that he was being replaced for a fresh approach. A disappointed Mr. Brosnan left the restaurant in a huff, says an associate to whom both parties relayed the events. Through a representative, the actor declined to comment.

The role went to 38-year-old Daniel Craig -- but only after Sony and the Broccolis considered about 100 other actors.

With "Casino Royale," the Broccolis pushed Bond in a different direction -- largely abandoning the flashy, playboy-with-gadgets approach of recent years in favor of a more emotional tone.

During the script-development process, Sony executives wondered aloud whether the stripped-down "Royale" needed more in the way of gadgets and Bond's double-entendre lines. Despite the inclusion of a few gizmos, including a homing device implanted in Bond's arm and some shots of strategically-placed Sony products, "Royale" lacks the tricked-out cars and covert weapons of past films.

The producers refused to add more. "We felt we needed to make a change in the series," Ms. Broccoli says. "So ... we thought, let's just go back and make a Bond film as though there'd never been any made before."