That's a good question. I was one of the few who seemingly really liked the idea (though, in fairness, I like anything that involves a dark ride going into that space).
And yet Universal is now the international distributor of the James Bond franchise. Just bad timing on the parks' part. Had they begun brainstorming the project a year later than they did, they probably would have been able to get the theme park rights from EON Productions since the two companies would have had a partnership (along with MGM) by that point.