Things we know about SPECTRE so far

SPECTRE teaser poster

SPECTRE teaser poster

No substantive spoilers, but super spoiler averse people should not even begin reading.

SPECTRE began seven months of principal photography on Dec. 8. That means we’ll soon be at the halfway mark of filming.

For other movies (say The Man From U.N.C.L.E. film) things would have wrapped up now. But this is a Bond film and one of the most expensive movies of all time. So here’s what we know as the halfway mark approaches.

This will be a new take on an old idea: At the Dec. 4 media event to kick off filming, nobody wanted to even acknowledge the story concerns the same criminal organization featured in early 007 films.

Earlier this month, Eon Productions co-boss Barbara Broccoli told Empire magazine the movie does feature that organization, albeit a new version. That’s not much of an admission, but it’s more than the principals were willing to say in December.

The movie includes an extensive, intricate car chase: The production this week wrapped up said car chase, involving an Aston Martin (driven by Bond) being chased by a Jaguar. Because the sequence was filmed on public streets in a major European city (Rome), a lot of video from the chase has ended u on the Internet. Some footage on the Internet (we’re not linking to it in this post) even shows how it finishes.

The Sony hacking is the 800-pound gorilla in the room: Eon’s talking point is that only an early draft surfaced in the computer hacking at Sony Studios, which is releasing SPECTRE. Based on the news accounts where reporters reviewed the script, that’s not the case. What has been written about is not the current shooting script (last-minute alterations are often made during filming). How close the script from the hacks is to the final version of the movie remains to be seen.

Given how expensive the movie is ($300 million or more, another fact that came out in the hacks), it’s understandable the hacking would be sensitive. Nevertheless, the hacking is a complication other 007 films haven’t had to deal with.

This is going to be a costly movie: Already, there has been footage shot in Austria, Rome and Pinewood Studios. There will soon be filming in Mexico, which we now know will include sizeable subsidies from the Mexican government (another fact from the hacks), as well as other locations.

Audiences won’t care as long as they feel they’ve been entertained. The executives (like the ones at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) who have to sign the checks for all involved, may be a little more nervous until the movie comes out in November.

Director says M:I 5 wraps production

Director Christopher McQuarrie said on Twitter that Mission: Impossible 5 has completed production.

McQuarrie said he took a “12 hour vacation” before starting post-production on the movie starring and produced by Tom Cruise. Paramount moved up the film’s release date to July 31 from Dec. 25.

The tweets are below.