EON Productions, MGM and Sony announced this morning that the next James Bond movie, once again starring Daniel Craig as Agent 007, will be called SPECTRE! Obviously that title holds enormous ramifications for the film's plot and the series. Thanks mainly to legal issues, now resolved, the eponymous villainous organization hasn't officially been heard from since Diamonds Are Forever back in 1971.
Joining Craig will be returning cast members Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, and Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner. This time around they'll be joined by Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Monica Belucci (Agents secrets) as Lucia Sciarra, David Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) as the unfortunately named henchman Mr. Hinx, Léa Seydoux (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) as Madeleine Swann, and Andrew Scott (Sherlock) as Denbigh, who director Sam Mendes described as "a new addition to the Whitehall family." The producers remained enigmatically cagey about exactly what the rest of those roles entail, and Waltz's character name, perhaps tellingly, was not revealed. The stunning Belucci was first rumored as a Bond Girl way back in 1997 for Tomorrow Never Dies, when Pierce Brosnan strongly advocated her for the role of Paris Carver.
Perhaps more anticipated than any human actor in the film, the new Bond car was also revealed. And it's nearly as stunning as Belucci. It's the all-new Aston Martin DB10, which Mendes claimed the Bond team had designed together with the car company.
As previously reported, Skyfall's Mendes will once again direct, this time joined behind the camera by editor Lee Smith (X-Men: First Class, Inception) and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, HER, Interstellar) stepping in for Roger Deakins. Van Hoytema previously indicated that while Deakins shot Skyfall on digital, he will shoot on film. Thomas Newman will return to score once again, as will production designer Dennis Gassner, 2nd unit director Alexander Witt, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, visual effects supervisor Steve Begg, costume designer Jany Temime (no word yet about Tom Ford, but I would assume he'll be providing Craig's suits again) and stunt coordinator Gary Powell. The twenty-fourth official James Bond movie begins its seven month shoot on Monday, and opens worldwide on November 6, 2015. (It was previously slated to open in the UK two weeks prior.) Less than a year to wait! You can see more pictures from the event at 007.com and watch the video of the press conference below:
The bullet hole has "arms" like their old logo"
ReplyDeleteWhen Sam Mendes said he was announcing a "non-human" cast member, I half-expected to see a white Persian cat trot out on stage. This film sounds very promising indeed. I have read (in the past 24 hrs) that Christoph Waltz is to play a character named Oberhauser, which was the name of Bond's childhood ski instructor. Of course, this story can go any number of ways until we begin getting more concrete evidence of it's storyline. Ah well, time to climb aboard the Bondwagon for another year.
ReplyDeleteI love the poster, Anonymous! I think they managed to outdo all the speculative fan art we'd gotten leading up to it, which is actually no mean feat nowadays. It's a little odd I guess in terms of the Craig continuity how specifically it references Tracy, but really awesome from a whole series perspective! I wonder if that will be in theaters? It might be a little too obscure for wide audiences, but sure is great for Bond fans! I love that they're not only embracing SPECTRE again, but going Full Octopus Logo! (Though I'm sure there ware plenty who won't realize that Kirby ripped off Bond to begin with for Hydra.)
ReplyDeleteHa! I didn't even think of that Teeritz (thanks to that very Aston Martin-shaped package sitting there on the stage), but that would have been great! I do wonder if Blofeld will even be in this movie though. I hope he's at least an unseen cat-stroking presence, even if Waltz isn't him. (Though I still suspect Waltz WILL be him.) Part of me would think that was cool, and part of me would feel a bit cheated if Waltz isn't Blofeld. (Because he would be great.) But it would also be cool if Waltz is a great standalone villain like Largo or Dr. No, working for an unseen Blofeld, and then at the end they finally reveal the face behind the cat and in doing so reveal some huge star as the next movie's villain. It would be very hard to keep the lid on such a surprise though! (Especially from Baz Bamigboye.)
ReplyDeleteI've read in the Mail that Waltz would be Franz Oberhauser, son of Bond's childhood ski instructor from Fleming's "Octopussy," Hannes Oberhauer. That sounds interesting too. Fleming hinted that Oberhauser was something of a surrogate father to Bond, so that would make his hitherto unseen son akin to a surrogate brother, I guess. Which could make for either a cool adversary or a good Kerim Bey-like ally, which Waltz would also be great at. But I don't think I want to see BLOFELD reinvented as Bond's "brother..."
When I read of Dan Bautista being cast, I began to fear that they were setting it up so that he would be Blofeld, since his build would be a believable threat to Craig's 007. I went into a little more detail over on my blog post today, but then I thought that casting him as Blofeld would make him the Bane of Bond's existence. And then there's Moriarty...
ReplyDeleteOh, and as for the bullet hole referencing Tracy, I think that's coincidence rather than intentional. They needed to have the octopus tentacles somehow. Very clever artwork because most, if not all, hardcore Bond fans will get it immediately.
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