As Sony Pictures’ deal ends is Bond to find a new home?
As we recently reported, Bond is officially back and after almost two years of rumours and backs and forths, Daniel Craig will once again be playing the world’s most popular super-spy after the actor confirmed his return on the US chatshow The Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert.
Bond 25 is still shrouded in mystery though, with rumours circulating that his next outing would be titled “Shatterhand” and feature a blind villain. The film was said to be based on the novel Never Dream of Dying by Raymond Benson, however the author himself dismissed such a notion.
Yesterday another story hit the internet with Page Six reporting that they had spoken to a source closely linked with the development of the new film and stated that the plot would now feature a newly married Bond, with his life thrown into disarray after his recent bride is murdered. In what sounds very familiar to (SPOILERS!) the ending 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the unnamed source then went on to state;
“The film’s like Taken with Bond.”
Whilst we are filing this strictly under “Rumour” at the moment, it’s worth mentioning that at the end of Spectre, Bond was seen riding off into the sunset with Dr Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and the previous time we saw Bond fall in love was towards the end of Casino Royale with Vespa Lynd (Eve Green) and the spy did in fact resign from the secret service at the time, prior to her demise.
It should be pointed out that at the moment any plot lines for the film are unlikely to be set in stone as the feature is very much in the early stages and no director has been announced but Yann Demange (’71) and Denis Villeneuve, are said to be favourites for the job.
There is still not a confirmation of who will be distributing the movie. Sony Pictures’ deal with the franchise came to an end with Spectre and various studios are out to nab the rights to the 25th film in the franchise. Sony are said to be desperate to keep Bond with them and Warner Bros have made no secret of their desire to be the new home for 007. With these two major studios making their intentions known, two other studios have also expressed their desire to distribute Bond with the Hollywood Reporter stating that both Amazon Studios and the recently formed Apple Studios are both pushing themselves forward for consideration. Snagging the distribution rights to the Bond franchise would be the perfect acquisition for a fledgling studio such as the latter two
The as-yet untitled 25th Bond film is scheduled for release November 8th 2019 irrespective of whoever ends up with the distribution rights. Watch this space.