MGM Vice Chairman Talks Bond 21

Rumours have been swirling wildly regarding as-yet-untitled Bond 21, ever since that Daily Mail article earlier this year. Brosnan’s in, Brosnan’s out, Brosnan wants to do it, Brosnan’s sick of doing it, Britney’s in, Britney’s out. The more astute people can pick the serious stuff from the serious fluff.

But the Brosnan debacle is the word on everybody’s lips. Until now, Eon and MGM have declined to speak on the matter, aside from a brief snippet from an Eon spokesperson claiming that Brosnan was still "their Bond", and that they had not said anything to convince otherwise. Almost all of what Bond fans have been reading has come from the mouth of James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan (or his friend and neighbour, "Die Another Day" co-star, Michael Madsen).

Until now.

MGM vice chairman and COO Chris McGurk has spoken to Variety about the current state of Bond 21.

According to McGurk – and contrary to recent rumours – Bond 21 is still scheduled to begin production "early next year", with a view to a probable November 2005 release. With Neal Purvis and Robert Wade hard at work on a script, McGurk commented on the rumoured creative differences between Eon and MGM (rumours that were only fuelled by MGM’s axing of the Halle Berry-led Jinx spin-off).

"Like any good production relationship between top-tier producers and a studio, you’re always going to have disagreements," he said. "We had a lot of disagreements on the last Bond, and they all got sorted out to everybody’s satisfaction."

McGurk said that aside from the fact that no 007 is currently linked to the picture, it’s business as usual for the Bond franchise.

"All creative decisions are mutual between the studio and the producers. They make recommendations and both sides can say yea or nay. We’re going to go through the same process on this one."

According to McGurk, decisions about a director, and the actor who will play James Bond, will be made "in the next few months."

This news item has been written by CBn forum regular Matt Weston, known as “[dark]” – Many thanks! Feel free to discuss this topic in this thread in CBn’s Bond 21 forums!