Bond 25: THR says Boyle may direct a movie this summer

Danny Boyle

The Hollywood Reporter, in a story about director Danny Boyle, sounded a skeptical note about his availability to director Bond 25.

The entertainment news website reported that Boyle and “Love Actually screenwriter Richard Curtis have teamed up for an untitled comedy just set up at Universal.”

According to that story, “Universal is eying a shoot for as early as summer if casting can come together.”

Why is this of interest to this blog? Well, without saying so directly, THR seems to be trying to knock down stories last month from Variety and Deadline: Hollywood that Boyle is under active consideration to direct Bond 25.

Major entertainment sites, including THR, Variety, Deadline and TheWrap, often break news before it’s announced. But they are loathe to acknowledge when their competitors have a scoop unless they have to do so.

Deadline referenced Variety (which had the story first). But Deadline added that Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge had devised a Bond 25 story and that Boyle would only direct the 007 film if that story were selected. In effect, Deadline only mentioned Variety when Deadline could top the earlier story. Amusingly, Variety and Deadline share the same owner.

So, here’s the take that The Hollywood Reporter took:

Rumors swirled in February that Boyle was a candidate to direct the new James Bond movie, but that project remains in flux thanks to a stalled director search. Insiders say that this music-inspired comedy will be Boyle’s next movie. If Bond producer Eon Productions does want Boyle, it will have to wait and potentially even shift the release date of Nov. 8, 2019.

Said rumors, of course, were the Variety and Deadline stories. THR finally waded (indirectly) into Bond 25 with this new story.

Regardless, it’s a new twist. It gives Bond fans something to chew over.

UPDATE (March 3): Deadline: Hollywood also had a story about this on March 1.  But it also had this passage: “Boyle is currently balancing this project with the James Bond script he is working on with John Hodge, which Deadline lifted the lid on ten days ago.” (Link in sentence in the original Deadline story.)

UK cover for new 007 novel emerges on Amazon UK

U.K. cover image for Forever and a Day, Anthony Horwitz’s second James Bond continuation novel.

David Leigh of The James Bond Dossier website came across some news on Wednesday — the Amazon U.K. website published an image for the British edition of Anthony Horowitz’s second James Bond continuation novel.

Ian Fleming Publications on Feb. 8 announced the title of the Horowitz novel. But the announcement only had a placeholder image.

Horowitz’s new novel is a prequel to 1953’s Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first novel which introduced the Bond character. The release says Bond’s predecessor as 007 “floats in the waters of Marseille.”

Presumably the cover references that setting. The cover also confirms that the new Horowitz novel contains some Fleming material. Horowitz’s first Bond novel, 2015’s Trigger Mortis, included some Fleming material originally pitched as part of a 007 television series.

Forever and a Day is scheduled for a May 31 release in the U.K. The novel won’t arrive in the United States until November. Amazon’s main website still lacks an image for the U.S. edition of the novel.