Due to a deal with Warner Bros., The Hobbit was able to wrest itself free from MGM’s financial morass and begin production in earnest with a shooting date set for February 2011. Now it’s looking like MGM’s other major property, James Bond, may also be back on track. According to Bloomberg (via MovieWeb), now that MGM has finally filed for bankruptcy, the studio can move forward with development on the popular franchise. MGM will reportedly own half of the rights to James Bond 23 with an equal partner paying all of the production costs. Future Bond movies would be fully owned and financed by MGM. The studio plans “new James Bond films may be released every second year starting in November 2012.”
Hit the jump for an update on all of the players currently involved with James Bond 23.
James Bond 23 was delayed indefinitely in April of this year. However, in July we reported that star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes were still attached. There’s no word if the new film will continue to work from a script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Peter Morgan.
There’s also an issue of scheduling. Craig is attached to play Mikael Blomkvist in Sony’s adaptation of “The Millennium Trilogy” and is currently shooting the first film in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He also has an option to do a sequel in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens.
As for Mendes, he’s been flirting with an adaptation of the novel On Chesil Beach, but we haven’t heard anything lately regarding his relationship to that film. We previously reported that Bond 23 could be filming late next summer/early fall and with a planned November 2012 release date, that shooting window could still be the target.
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While I’m excited that the new film is moving forward, it would be a terrible mistake to keep cranking them out every two years on a production line. The series has fallen into that trap before, and was in danger of doing so again recently with the excellent Casino Royale followed by the rushed and forgettable Quantum Of Solace. Spend an extra year or so developing the scripts and deliver fewer, better films, I say.
I whole agree 100%, having a Bond film every two years just for the sake of making a Bond film is retarded.
Don’t forget that some of the best Bond films were made with that assembly line mentality back in the 60′s. Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger were all made only 1 year apart, and then Thunderball started the every 2 years trend, which didn’t end until the late 1980′s with License to Kill, which is actually a good movie as well. So, yeah, don’t discredit the ability to churn out quality films, it’s not so much about the time spent as it is about the talent attached. Clearly, Marc Forster wasn’t meant to direct action adventure stories of that scope and complexity.
I whole agree 100%, having a Bond film every two years just for the sake of making a Bond film is retarded.
i think people were a little harsh towards Quantum of Solace. It definitely wasn’t as good as the AMAZING Casino Royale, but it was still a stand-up kinda film with great action and acting and a very dramatic story line. Could definitely have used a more bad-ass villain.
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I hope and wish that Q will return to the movies. A Bond movie without Q isn’t fully complete.