Over at the Commander Bond Web site, there was a Nov. 6 article about an appearance by Daniel Craig on the “Live With Regis and Kelly Show.”
The main thrust of the article was that Craig confirmed that Bond 23, the next 007 movie, is supposed to be out in 2011. Craig talked mostly about his play A Steady Rain so there weren’t a lot of details. But the full quote as reported by Commander Bond, was a bit intriguing:
“The plan is to start shooting the next one at the end of next year so it’ll be ready for 2011. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
That would imply there’s about a year of pre-production work left before cameras roll. That leaves more questions than answers, including:
1) How’s the script coming along? MGM and Eon Productions said in June that Peter Morgan would join 007 veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade in scripting the next Bond movie. In the press release, we were told a date for the start of production is yet to be confirmed and that Morgan also scripted the upcoming The Special Relationship for HBO and Hereafter for DreamWorks. He will turn his attention to Bond 23 on completion of these duties. So at that time, it wasn’t known when Morgan would even start work on Bond 23.
2. When’s a director going to be hired? While a lot of pre-production duties may not need a director on board, there’s only so much progress that can occur. A director wants to make his or her own impact on a script before shooting starts, for example. Also, certain key personnel (such as directors of photography) tend not to be hired a director is at work.
3. Why is Daniel Craig the only person talking publicly about Bond 23 lately? Eon bossman Michael G. Wilson only goes public so often and his half-sister Barbara Broccoli even less than that. When they have talked, it has been more about possible non-Bond projects than about Bond 23.
None of this is terribly satisfying. The sports equivalent is the “hot stove league” where baseball fans talk about possible trades or keep track of developments at their favorite teams during the off season. That’s not a perfect analogy, though. Baseball fans at least know when the next season starts. Nobody really knows that much about Bond 23.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Barbara Broccoli, Bond 23, Daniel Craig, Michael G. Wilson, Neal Purvis, Peter Morgan, Robert Wade, When is Bond 23 coming out? |
The Spy Command 
Don’t pay too much attention to what an actor said …And don’t pay attention at all to a Fan website hungry for news about Bond23 – whatever the source …
As you rightly pointed out , with no official annoucement from either Eon or/and M.G.M , there’s fat chance what Mr Craig said is purely …Out of context !
The guy’s simply willing to please people who are interviewing him for ‘ A Steady Rain’ , and that’s all .
No big deal . And certainly NOT a news to be taken seriously ( ie : apart from the Fan sites , no decent information source dared reporting that ‘ according to the current James Bond , the next 007 film is due to start late 2010 ‘ )
The Special Relationship and Hereafter are both currently being filmed, so presumably the bulk of Peter Morgan’s work has been completed on these screenplays.
However, he is also listed as an executive producer on Hereafter, so I guess it depends on how much of a committment that is before he gets to work on Bond 23.
After Quantum of Solace Eon may be taking no chances with the script; Paul Haggis didn’t produce the wonder they had expected. Perhaps that was due in part to the writer’s strike, and so they don’t want to be in the position of having a rushed draft to start filming with again and have their writers working on ideas as early as possible.
That said, for some reason they don’t seem to have realised yet that all the best Bond films have an Ian Fleming story at their heart.
With Casino Royale they announced Martin Campbell as director in February 2005; they announced Marc Forster in June 2007.
So, going on that and assuming what Daniel Craig has said is correct, the director may not be announced until next summer.