The title of the 24th movie in the James Bond series has been revealed as SPECTRE, with Christoph Waltz, Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Sherlock‘s Andrew Scott confirmed to have joined the cast. Alongside the returning Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomi Harris as Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw as Q, Daniel Craig’s Bond will also get a new car in the shape of the slightly arousing Aston Martin DB10.
Andrew Scott will be playing a character called Denbigh, described by director Sam Mendes as a new member of the MI6 family, while Bautista will be playing Hinx, Monica Bellucci’s character is Lucia Sciarra, Lea Seydoux is Madeleine Swann and Christoph Waltz is Franz Oberhauser. London, Rome, Mexico City, Morocco, Tangier and Austria were cited as locations for the movie, which has already begun shooting in Italy.
The movie will be written by John Logan and Bond veterans, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade. Hoyte van Hoytema is the Director of Photography and Lee Smith will be on editing duties. Production Designer, Dennis Gassner returns along with Costume Designer, Jany Temime and Composer, Thomas Newman. Action Specialist, Alexander Witt is the 2nd Unit Director. Stunt Coordinator is Gary Powell, SFX Supervisor is Chris Corbould, and Visual Effects Supervisor is Steve Begg.
[SPOILERS FOLLOW] The Bond producers will once again be frustrated that the entire cast was leaked ahead of time, while the title has been heavily rumoured over the past few days. Calling the movie SPECTRE would also seem to be confirmation of another lingering whisper, that Bond’s arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld is set for return – said to be played by Christoph Waltz, whose character will supposedly masquerade as Oberhauser, son of a father figure from Bond’s youth whose name is taken from author Ian Fleming’s Octopussy short story. That would certainly tie into the official plot synopsis, as follows:
A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.
Rumours say a car chase will be taking place in Rome, while Bond will return to the ski slopes in Sölden, Austria.
The allegiances of Léa Seydoux and Monica Bellucci remain a mystery, though given Bellucci’s penchant for playing bad girls, it seems a reasonable bet that her Lucia Sciarra could be a decidedly sexier version of Irma Bundt, Blofeld’s main squeeze and the person who actually killed Bond’s wife in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service prior to the Casino Royale reboot. Léa Seydoux’s Swann therefore seems likely to be on the side of the angels, though early casting rumours hinted she had auditioned for a character whose allegiances were not so set in stone. Andrew Scott’s Denbigh, on the other hand, has been marked out as a traitor ever since his casting leaked.
Dave Bautista’s Hinx could go one of two ways, with the most likely being that he is the movie’s main henchman. However, fans may have reason to suspect a double bluff: while all rumours point to Christoph Waltz playing Blofeld, Bautista is actually a much better fit for Ian Fleming’s description of the character as “a massive man (6’3), weighing roughly 20 stone, has black crew-cut hair, black eyes, heavy eyelashes, a thin mouth and long pointed hands and feet”. In other words, much closer to Bautista than the 5’8 Waltz. It would be an awesome, if admittedly unlikely, trick to pull with all eyes on Waltz.
Craig’s Bondiverse seems primed to acquire second major evil organisation, taking over from the hastily aborted Quantum from Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace. Or maybe, given how hastily the Quantum storyline was abandoned following Solace‘s mixed reception, one organisation will feed into the other? Seems unlikely given previous comments on the matter, but it would certainly help tie up a few loose ends.
SPECTRE will return… I mean, be released globally on November 6th 2015. The first teaser poster, below, recalls the famous closing shot (quite literally) of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as well as SPECTRE’s octopus logo. You can watch the live stream announcement below as well.
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