Sony Pictures held a press conference this morning to announce that the new James Bond title would be Spectre.  The name stands for SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion ("Here at Spectre, our very name says how evil we are and we don't give a fuck,"), and is notorious criminal organization led by mastermind, Ernest Blofeld.  The conference this morning confirms that Christoph Waltz is on board, but the official Bond Twitter feed says he's playing a character named "Oberhauser", not Blofeld as previously suspected (although this could just be an unnecessary head-fake).The conference also confirmed that Lea Seydoux and Dave Bautista were on board.  Seydoux will play Madeleine Swann while Bautista is set as Mr. Hinx (who could be a villain in the mold of Oddjob).  Additionally, new cast members will include Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty on Sherlock) as Denbigh and Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra.  Since earlier reports said Seydoux would play a femme fatale, I assume Bellucci is playing the new Bond Girl (and my word, what a get for a Bond Girl if that’s her role).

Hit the jump for more on Spectre including the teaser poster, Bond’s new ride, shooting locations, and video of the announcement.  Returning cast members include Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Rory Kinnear.  The film opens in the U.S. on November 6th.

The press conference also announced that Bond’s new car is the Aston Martin DB10, and that the shooting locations include London, Rome, Mexico City, Tangier, Sölden, Obertilliach, and Lake Altaussee.  Check out the lovely DB10:

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Based on these brief points, I think all of this sounds great.  Skyfall moved us back towards the original Bond but with a modern twist, and Spectre looks to continue that tradition.  Waltz should be more than able to carry on the tradition of Blofeld and serve as a real challenge for Bond, and the rest of the new cast are also strong additions.  I’m particularly excited to see what Scott will add since he’s never done a movie this big before, and he’s been brilliant on Sherlock.

Of course, there are still plenty of new questions, but I’m more than happy with what we learned today.  And as for this first teaser poster, it’s pretty damn great [via 007.com’s Twitter] (and as /Film points out, the tentacles on the bullet hole are reminiscent of Blofeld's ring in From Russia with Love; again SPECTRE: Evil and We Don't Care Who Knows It)

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Image via Sony Pictures

Here's a shot of Blofeld's ring from From Russia with Love:

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Image via MGM/Eon

And here's the video of the announcement: