Tag: James Bond

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Christopher Nolan Calls Hypothetical Opportunity To Direct Next James Bond Movie “An Amazing Privilege”

Christopher Nolan‘s massive atomic bomb biopic “Oppenheimer” is out in theaters and it’s already gathering quite the following as the writer/director famously took the project to auction after exiting his longtime working relationship with Warner Bros. and the pricey R-rated drama landed at the feet of Universal Pictures. While Nolan is in an excellent position to keep developing original projects and putting each on to auction to get the best possible situation (theatrical windows, budget, casting freedom, and final cut) it looks like he’s still very much open to the idea of tackling James Bond.

While speaking with host Josh Horowitz on his fantastic podcast Happy Sad Confused (Listen below), the director was asked about his current feelings about potentially tackling the next incarnation of Bond as the looming reboot affectionately referred to as “Bond 26” or any future installment. This comes after years of expressing his love for the franchise and tempted interest in actually getting involved.

“The influence of those movies in my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. It would be an amazing privilege to do one,” Nolan told the podcast when Bond was brought up. “At the same time, when you take on a character like that you’re working with a particular set of constraints.”

“It has to be the right moment in your creative life where you can express what you want to express and really burrow into something within the appropriate constraints because you would never want to take on something like that and do it wrong.”

He continued, ““You wouldn’t want to take on a film without being fully committed to what you bring to the table creatively. So as a writer, casting, everything — it’s a full package. You’d have to be really needed and wanted in terms of bringing the totality of what you bring to a character. Otherwise, I’m very happy to be first in line to see whatever they do.”

As a fan of Nolan’s work, it’s extremely hard to watch his action-focused projects like “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” “Inception,” and “Tenet” without seeing the obvious influence the Bond franchise has had on him when it comes to bombastic blockbuster filmmaking.

Nolan isn’t the only one that has expressed a large interest in tackling the James Bond character over the years and it’s worth highlighting that French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (“Dune,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Sicaro”) stated that getting a crack at 007 was a big dream for him as well.

Despite various tabloid rumblings, EON Productions and MGM Studios (now owned by parent company Amazon) haven’t officially decided on either a director or the next actor to portray the iconic MI6 agent. Although, there had been some indication that Aaron Taylor-Johnson “might” be in the mix given he’s actually in the age range for the role (EON says they’re aiming for someone in their 30s ruling out a heap of longtime rumored “contenders”). Interestingly enough, Nolan and Taylor-Johnson have previously worked together on “Tenet” and a reunion wouldn’t be that terribly shocking.

“Oppenheimer” is currently in theaters and you can listen to that full interview with Nolan below.

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‘No Time To Die’ Crosses $700M At Global Box Office

While No Time To Die, the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise has been doing okay domestically, it’s been hitting some excellent numbers overseas. The massive action pic has now crossed the $700 million-dollar mark at the global box office.

According to Box Office Mojo, the final outing for Daniel Craig has already nabbed $708.6 million at the global box office with domestic earnings of $150.4 million and international at an impressive $558.1 million.

It’s currently trailing Skyfall and Spectre’s box office, making it the third most successful Bond movie. Quite an accomplishment given theaters are still trying to make a comeback from the pandemic.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

SOURCE: BOX OFFICE MOJO

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Bond Producer Says ‘No Time To Die’ Supporting Characters Won’t Be Getting Spinoffs & Dismisses Idea Of Future Spinoffs Too

No Time To Die will see the end of the Daniel Craig era opening the door for a hard-reboot recasting all roles, not just James Bond. However, EON’s Barbara Broccoli has now downplayed the idea of spinoffs or even seeing more of the supporting characters of No Time To Die in solo projects.

Here is what she said to Fandango.

“We have not done [a spinoff] in the past and I don’t think we have any plans to do it in the future.”

I’m sure folks had been banking on Lashana Lynch’s Nomi getting her own movie or spinoff, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

At one time, there had been rumblings of Michelle Yeoh and Halley Berry’s characters from the Pierce Brosnan era getting their own films, that also never materialized.

This likely means that they’d push against the idea of branching-out of the franchise drowning in content and will seemingly simply focus on the Bond movies, given how tough they are to put together. While MGM Studios is most likely going to be bought by Amazon (hasn’t been approved or finalized), this doesn’t mean that the streaming service will be suddenly able to bully EON around, who are the main stewarts of the Bond franchise and will likely continue to keep creative control.

Broccoli has also previously told BBC Radio 4 they’re not rushing into Bond 26 and won’t even consider the casting search until 2022 at the earliest. Meaning that there aren’t any frontrunners or anyone signed on, despite years of internet rumors.

“We want Daniel to have his time of celebration. Next year we’ll start thinking about the future.”

Today, marks the wide release of No Time To Die.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: FANDANGO

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Bond 26’: Producers Say Search For A New James Bond Actor Won’t Begin Until 2022

Despite years of tabloid reports/online rumors of various frontrunners and shortlists for a new James Bond actor (to join the yet-to-be-titled Bond 26), franchise producer Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions is pouring cold water, yet again, on the idea they’ve even started looking for someone new to replace Daniel Craig.

While speaking with BBC Radio 4’s Today (via Deadline), the producer revealed they won’t even begin “thinking” about starting the search until 2022.

“We want Daniel to have his time of celebration. Next year we’ll start thinking about the future.”

The assumption is that they likely didn’t think Daniel Craig was ultimately retiring, because she also suggested in the interview it took her a while to accept that was happening jokingly stating she was in “denial.” Adding that the Craig was reluctant to even take the part in the beginning.

“He knew it would change his life, which it obviously has. He enabled us to explore the emotional life of Bond, to go deeply into the personal, complexity of the character.”

I don’t think they would have minded another film with Craig, but it certainly sounded like when he accepted to return for No Time To Die, he was serious about it being his final outing as James Bond, something that has been part of the marketing of the film.

It’ll be interesting if they continue the trend of keeping on supporting actors with the new James Bond actor as they’ve previously done with the various incarnations or will take a more drastic hard-reboot approach by replacing everyone.

There had been previous rumblings that co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (No Time To Die, Fleabag) has already started working on Bond 26, but remains to be seen when they’ll actually get that up and ready for cameras.

Names such as Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, Jamie Bell, Rege-Jean Page, Riz Ahmed, Richard Madden, Henry Golding, Aidan Turner, James Norton, Cillian Murphy, Sam Heughan, and Jack Lowden have been previously asked to comment on potentially taking on the role or have been mused/rumored for it (the latter doesn’t seem to be terribly trustworthy).

However, multiple statements from producers would suggest they haven’t even started thinking about actors. Then again, since franchise producers rarely comment on Bond stories it allows tabloids to post fake casting stories without much rebuke.

Fans will just have to be patient.

No Time To Die will release domestically on October 8.

The rest of the cast will include Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049, Knives Out) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: BBC

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Daniel Craig Champions Better Parts For Women Just As Good As James Bond

Daniel Craig’s era of James Bond is coming to and end, as No Time To Die has been billed as the actor’s final outing as the British spy and led to an emotional viral video of him saying goodbye to cast/crew as they wrapped on the latest installment.

The subject of a female James Bond came up during a chat with Radio Times, as Daniel Craig laments that there should be better parts for actresses that have equal footing with James Bond.

“The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”

Craig also commented on what co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (said to be writing Bond 26) brought to the film.

“She’s got devilish humor. Her influence permeates a lot of this film. She walked that fantastic line of keeping it as a thriller and being very funny. But Phoebe didn’t come in to change Bond. She came in to spice it up for sure, but she’s a Bond fan – she wasn’t about to take him in a different direction.”

What’s interesting here is that No Time To Die actually features a female 007, Nomi, played by British actress Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel). So, the idea that the franchise even needs a “female version of James Bond” is sort of broken because that character already exists with Nomi, who has literally replaced Bond and took his 007 codename.

No Time To Die releases domestically in U.S./Canada on October 8.

The rest of the cast will include Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049, Knives Out) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: RADIO TIMES

Posted on in Film News

Amazon-MGM Deal Likely Won’t End James Bond Franchise’s Theatrical Run

Today, it was announced that Amazon is going to purchase MGM Studios for an impressive $8.45 billion, which includes co-ownership of the James Bond franchise alongside EON Productions. However, as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, this won’t impact the release of No Time To Die’s October release and might not overturn the franchise’s box office dominance or future theatrical release.

As they point out, the deal likely won’t close and the distribution for No Time To Die will most likely stand as is.

On the theatrical front, it’s unlikely that MGM and United Artists Releasing would change plans for their remaining 2021 theatrical releases — including the James Bond pic No Time to Die — particularly since the deal is likely to take months to close. UAR is a subsidiary of MGM and handles domestic distribution duties for MGM titles (Universal has international on No Time to Die).

They also highlight that EON wouldn’t be terribly keen to pull James Bond from theaters for streaming only as the franchise is best known for a big screen presence and given Amazon won’t have full ownership they’ll have to play nice. Given the amount of money Amazon would be giving up to make Bond a streaming property wouldn’t make a lot of sense from a business standpoint, as it could be just as lucrative to make Prime Video being the streaming home for the franchise.

The Bond franchise has always been a marquee theatrical franchise that’s well known around the globe. And Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, whose U.K. production company EON is 007’s home, are especially keen on the big-screen experience. (EON and MGM share rights via a holding company.)

Daniel Craig is expected to retire from the Bond role, allowing a new unnamed actor to step in for the untitled Bond 26, which is said to be developed by No Time To Die screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

No Time To Die will hit theaters on October 8.

The cast will include Daniel Craig as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Amazon Officially Announces Agreement To Purchase MGM For $8.45 Billion – Will “Reimagine” Their Deep Catalog

It’s been reported for days that Amazon was looking to spend almost $9 billion to acquire MGM, a major Hollywood studio that has a heap of IP titles and legacy films. The studio also has a partnership with EON Productions for the James Bond franchise.

Well, the streaming giant made the merger official this morning and dropped a press release confirm it’s going ahead, paying an impressive $8.45 billion for MGM. The press release also mentioned Amazon’s intention to “reimagine” the deep catalog, which likely means turning properties into films and television shows.

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. 

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and MGM today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling.

The studio’s film catalog includes 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, RoboCop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many films, over 4,000 of them. Not to mention 17,000 television shows as well.

MGM is already looking to soft-reboot RoboCop with RoboCop Returns from Aussie director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters). The Russo Brothers are producing a new incarnation of the romantic crime flick Thomas Crown Affair led by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther, Without Remorse) as the charming thief. Jordan is about to direct and star in Creed III, making his directorial debt on the boxing drama. A new James Bond is expected to be hired for Bond 26, once No Time To Die ends the Daniel Craig era. Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider reboot movie is set to get a sequel from director Misha Green (Lovecraft Country). Something like Stargate would be prime for a franchise reboot as it was a feature film that spawned multiple television shows. Those are just some examples that are just the tip of the iceberg and we should expect more projects announced in the coming weeks/months given the deep pockets of Amazon Studios/Prime Video.

Amazon getting their hands on a legacy Hollywood studio should help boost their film/television library but also allowing them to create new original IP content, allowing them to become more competitive against the Netflix originals and could see Amazon attempt theatrical distribution on a larger scale as they could add global box office to their revenue stream.

Some of the high-profile Prime Video shows on the horizon are the expensive Lord of The Rings that is expected to land at least five seasons and at least two seasons of Wheel of Time series led by Rosamund Pike that is based on the Robert Jordan fantasy novels.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Film News

Amazon’s Purchase of MGM For $9 Billion Could Be Announced This Week

There have been reports circulating for a while now that streaming giant Amazon is looking to buy Hollywood studio MGM Studios, it would be their first entry into making a huge push into major feature film development.

A deal could be announced as early as this week according to a report from The Wall Street Journal and point towards a figure close to $9 billion. People have pointed out that valuation is a bit steep as the company was valued at around $5.5 billion back in December.

Amazon.com Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion, said people familiar with the matter, a pact that would turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant. An agreement could be announced as early as this week, people close to the situation said, assuming the talks don’t fall apart at the last minute.

MGM is the partner of EON Productions on the James Bond franchise and could mean that Amazon could become the streaming home of the franchise. They’re also behind the Candyman remake from Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), the Creed films with Michael B. Jordan set to direct Creed III, and they’ve been developing a new RoboCop film as well.

Amazon landing a real and established Hollywood studio means that the streaming service could branch-out to global theatrical distribution, as I don’t imagine EON would want to see their Bond franchise become some Prime Video exclusive and could see Amazon originals turn into box office earners.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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‘Black Adam’: Former James Bond Actor Pierce Brosnan Tapped To Play Dr. Fate Opposite Dwayne Johnson

The other day it was announced that New Line Cinema had hired Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren to play the villain Hespera in David F. Sanberg’s Shazam! sequel Shazam! Fury of The Gods.

Another big name has been selected for another key role in a DC Comics film.

Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has been tapped to play DC Comics hero and Justice Society member Dr. Fate in Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam solo film according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Brosnan will play Kent Nelson, aka the good Dr. Fate, a son of an archaeologist who was taught sorcery skills and given the magical Helmet of Fate. The character, created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman, is one of DC’s oldest characters, having first appeared in 1940’s More Fun Comics #5.

The Irish actor joins a cast that includes Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall aka Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Al Rothstein aka Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkell aka Cyclone, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz aka Isis, and Marwan Kenzari expected to play the film’s villain.

There is some hope from fans that there will be teases of a future crossover between Johnson’s Black Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam! as the two DC characters have come to blows in the comics.

Filming will begin next month in Atlanta with Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra behind the camera and Warner Bros. has yet to give it a new release date.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘No Time To Die’ Officially Delayed To October 8th

EON has officially announced that No Time To Die has been bumped from April 2nd to October 8th. A rumored fall delay had been making the rounds lately which has now been confirmed by the studio.

It looks like other studios are delaying their big films coming in the spring as well.

The cast will include Daniel Craig as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: EON