MGM executive says 2020 will be ‘a Bond year’

MGM’s Leo the Lion logo

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s chief operating officer said 2020 will be “a Bond year” with the release of Bond 25.

“As for 2020, we could not be more excited about the film slate,” Christopher Brearton said on an investor call. “It’s a Bond year.” The movie’s April 8, 2020 U.S. release date, he said, means it “will be out in time” for Easter and spring break.

Bond 25 has been delayed twice. It originally had U.S. release dates of November 2019 and February 2020. The exit of Danny Boyle as director caused the postponement until February 2020. The second move came as the film’s script was rewritten for four weeks by script doctor Scott Z. Burns.

Brearton, in prepared remarks, didn’t get into that background.

“We will soon commence production on Bond 25, directed by Cary Fukunaga of True Detective fame,” he said. “And as we recently announced we have secured a strong pre-Easter 2020 date for the film.”

Bond 25 is being released in the U.S. by United Artists Releasing, MGM’s joint venture with Annapurna Pictures. Universal is handling international distribution.

The executive also said MGM’s 2019 financial results will be affected by investments in its film and TV units as well as Bond 25 being pushed back into 2020.

Brearton emerged as a first among equals in the MGM executive suite after CEO Gary Barber departed the company in March 2018. No CEO has been named since.

The chief operating officer also talked about MGM’s strategy more broadly. He said the studio plans to release four-to-six movies under the MGM brand and additional, smaller budget films under its Orion brand. Brearton said a third Creed movie, a continuation of the Rocky saga, is in development.

MGM also has done a deal with Joe and Anthony Russo where the brothers will supervise remakes of movies in the company’s film library. The Russos have co-directed four Marvel Studios movies, including the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.

Bond 25 questions: Waiting for principal photography

Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux await the start of Bond 25 principal photography.

While the 007 fan base awaits the start of principal photography, the blog has more questions.

When will principal photography begin?

Presumably sooner than later, but not imminently.

This week, Bond 25 director Cary Fukunaga was spotted in Matera, Italy, and he was photographed there. On April 10, a story in an Italian newspaper showed up via a photograph on Instagram.

Two readers of the blog, @CorneelVF and @EiriniMakr, discussed it (the latter knows Italian) on Twitter. According to that story, Fukunaga will be in Matera until Sunday and travel elsewhere in Italy after that.

In any case, you can’t have have the first unit of a film start work without a director. And the first unit isn’t filming yet.

Could other Bond 25 work be going on?

Sure. The second unit might be laboring. A miniatures or special effects unit may be at work. There is, of course, no way of knowing right now.

Could another writer have been hired or about to be hired?

Certainly possible. It would make sense to have a scribe around to make last-minute adjustments.

A story line has taken hold that Daniel Craig and director Marc Forster “wrote” Quantum of Solace on the set. However, once a Writer’s Guild strike was over, Joshua Zetumer was hired for the final rewriting. Zetumer didn’t get a credit.

Who will be the credited writers for Bond 25?

Strictly a guess: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (writing as a team) and Scott Z. Burns (an expensive script doctor).

John Hodge was on board when Danny Boyle was hired to direct. But even if any of his ideas make the final script, (and we have no idea at this point) he may not get a credit.

A wild card: Director Fukunaga also is a writer. Perhaps he did enough work to merit a screen credit for writing.