Director Sam Mendes took to a stage at Pinewood Studios this morning to announce the next stage of the James Bond spy franchise, better known as 007. Fans have been waiting since the release of Skyfall in 2012 for news, and EON had quite the (albeit short) announcement. The entire event was livestreamed for fans in all time zones to hear.
Mendes first revealed the title: SPECTRE. Fans of the novels and Connery-era films may recognize the name as that of a counter-espionage organization headed by one Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Mendes then introduced the Aston Martin DB10, Bond’s new car in the film before trotting out the cast. Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful) returns as Tanner along with Ben Whishaw’s (Cloud Atlas) Q, Naomie Harris’ (Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom) Eve Moneypenny, and Ralph Fiennes’ (The Grand Budapest Hotel) M. The new supporting cast then took the stage in similar fashion. Andrew Scott (Sherlock) will join the MI6 Whitehall crew as Denbigh. Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) joins the cast as Mr. Hinx, Monica Bellucci (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) as Lucia Sciarra, Lea Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color) as Madeleine Swann, and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) as Oberhauser. To close things out, Mendes brought 007 himself, Daniel Craig, out to join the rest of the cast and close out the event.
As for analysis of the announcement news, considering the heavy rumors that Christoph Waltz would be playing Blofeld, I’d hazard a guess that Oberhauser is just a red herring – just think back to the reveals at the end of Skyfall. And based on the title, it’s safe to assume that the Bond films will continue, in a way, to return to their roots, both in terms of source material and the early part of the franchise.
Filming begins on Monday, and the film will shoot at Pinewood Studios London and in Mexico City, Rome, Tangier & Erfoud in Morocco, and Sölden, Obertilliach and Lake Altausee in Austria for a total of seven months. It’s slated for US release in just about 49 weeks on November 6, 2015.
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