James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli (along with director Sam Mendes) finally revealed information regarding the new James Bond film—which has been referred to as Bond 24, since it will be the 24th Bond film—this morning during a live video stream from the 007 stage at London's Pinewood Studios. The anticipated film has been titled Spectre and will, of course, star Daniel Craig. Mendes also confirmed some pretty great casting rumors and announced what Aston Martin has in store for everyone's favorite spy.
Along with Craig, Spectre will see the return of Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Rory Kinnear. The biggest casting news though comes in the form of the newcomers, and we couldn't be more excited. Christoph Waltz will be appearing, but not as the rumored Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Mendes didn't give too many details about who he would be playing, but the Bond Twitter feed reported it will be as Oberhauser. Another new addition we are incredibly excited for is Andrew Scott, who you may know as Jim Moriarty in Sherlock. Fingers crossed that he gets at least one scene with Waltz and Craig together.
Other new additions include Dave Bautista (who nailed it as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy) and Léa Seydoux (best known from Blue Is the Warmest Color). And finally, famed Italian actress Monica Bellucci has been cast as the next highly coveted Bond girl, Lucia Sciarra. Not only is the gorgeous 50-year-old actress the oldest Bond girl (not counting Judi Dench, because come on, M will always the top lady in Bond's life), this role is especially poignant for Bellucci since she was almost cast as Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997. I think we can all agree that Spectre will be a much better film.
Mendes also unveiled the new Aston Martin DB10, celebrating the 50-year relationship between the franchise and the luxury auto marque, which was exclusively created for the film. We can't wait to see it in action.
For some behind-the-scenes news, the same writing team (John Logan, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade) that gave us Skyfall has written Spectre, which definitely bodes well for the story. Hoyte van Hoytema is the Director of Photography and Lee Smith is the Editor. Dennis Gassner returns as the Production Designer, as well as Costume Designer Jany Temime and Composer Thomas Newman.
In case you were wondering what it was going to be about, the official synopsis reads: "A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind Spectre."
With principle photography starting on Monday, they will be shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, Rome, Mexico City, Tangier, Erfoud in Morocco, and will also be sending Bond back to the snow, this time in Sölden, Austria (shooting will also happen in Obertilliach and Lake Altaussee). Filming will take place over the next seven months and it will be released on November 6, 2015. We may have almost another whole year before we get to see it, but at least we now know some details, which will mean photos and trailers are soon on their way to get us through this hard time. We just wish that they had revealed whether or not Sam Smith would in fact be singing Spectre's title song.
If you want to see the video and check out the cast, and the gorgeous DB10, check out the video on the official James Bond 007 YouTube channel.
