According to The Hollywood News, Vic Armstrong has been signed up to direct a new film titled Shooting Stars, which, thanks to computer magic, brings the stars of yesteryear back to cinemas - including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Humphrey Bogart. Filming will start when Vic has wrapped up work Mission: Impossible 3. So is it possible that Vic Armstrong will not be working on Casino Royale?

Vic Armstrong

Armstrong, who started working for the Broccoli family as a stuntman in 1967’s You Only Live Twice and who acted as Second Unit Director for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, has reportedly wrapped up his 2nd Unit work on Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Anyway, and this is new and not yet confirmed information, Armstrong is said to head the 2nd Unit of Tom Cruise’s 3rd outing as Ethan Hunt. Both, Cruise and Armstrong, got to know each other at the set of War of the Worlds. Additionally, Armstrong is an experienced action choreographer and has worked in Shanghai for The Great Raid. Shanghai will supposedly feature as a location in M:I3.

Shooting of the latest Cruise movie will start in Italy on July 18th, 2005 and is expected to last several months, because it seems locations are set all around the globe. This means that the film will not wrap before late autumn or early winter. After this, his work on Shooting Stars could commence. It will only be Armstrong’s 2nd movie (after Joshua Tree, 1993) where he acts as Director, which means that Armstrong will be involved in pre-production, shooting and post-production. In case Casino Royale really starts filming in January 2006, Vic Armstrong could not work on the 21st James Bond film. Since Armstrong never was offered the Director’s chair for a Bond movie, it is possible that he prefers Shooting Stars to Casino Royale.

Of course, this is all speculation and not based on confirmed information. A big thank you to ‘Clopin’!
To discuss this news visit this thread in CBn’s Casino Royale forums.