Bond 23 pre-production put on hold

As already reported, MGM, the studio behind the James Bond films, is facing immense financial problems, resulting in a sale of the studio. Screenwriter Peter Morgan already hinted at the delay of pre-production due to these difficulties. Until today, no official confirmation has been given for a halt.

Today, the Sunday Express reports that not only pre-production of Bond 23 has been halted, but that the “future of the Bond franchise hangs in the balance.” The paper indicates that if the MGM situation remains unclear, the film rights of the franchise could be sold off to another studio.

Producer Michael G Wilson, who produces the Bond films with Barbara Broccoli, admitted to the paper: “We just don’t know enough about the situation to comment but we know it’s uncertain.”

Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig already confirmed that Bond 23 was only due in 2011, making the gap between Quantum of Solace and the next film the longest one between two films in Daniel Craig’s term as James Bond, but with a possible sale of either the studio or the filming rights, even a longer gap does not seem to be unlikely at all.

Keep your browsers pointed to the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest Bond 23 news.

"I'd love to reinvent Q and Moneypenny."

In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Daniel Craig commented on possible story ideas and details for Bond 23.

Asked whether the Bond he portrays would stay monogamic in the next films, Craig said: "We have plenty of time in the next installment to tell that story [of Bond sleeping with women]. We introduced the "new Bond" properly with these two films, so now everything is possible: hollowed-out volcanoes, undersea lairs, characters such as Q and Moneypenny. All this could return to the franchise. I would love if we reinvented these two charachters. But we would need to get the best actors around for these roles."

In the next question, Craig was asked about the rumours that he asked for a gay sex scene in a future James Bond film. Laughing, the British actor said: "I know that this is an internet rumour and everybody asks me about it. I have nothing against homosexuals and as you may know, I already played a gay man in another film. But I will never ever play a gay James Bond. If that is ever going to happen, I will quit the job."

Stay tuned to CBn.

'Quantum of Solace' Teaser Poster Revealed

It’s here! The first teaser poster for Quantum of Solace, the 22nd James Bond
film from Eon Productions and Sony, has been released last night!

AOL
Moviefone was the first website to put up the teaser poster. It is also
available as desktop wallpaper from 007.com, the
official James Bond Website from Eon Productions and Sony Pictures.

Click here
for a 800 x 600 version
Click
here for a 1024 x 768 version
Click
here for a 1280×1024 version

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for the most up-to-date James Bond news on the web.

More 'Quantum Of Solace' Plot Details Emerge

In a well researched article,
BBC reveals more plot details from the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

While already revealed in some early footage that Bond has a fight outside an
art gallery in Siena, Italy, the report adds that also a “cavernous interior” of this gallery has been built in Pinewood Studios. “Several statues—some eight metres tall—stand around the gallery set, wrapped in clear plastic—presumably to protect them from the pyrotechnics.”

Producer Michael G. Wilson also revealed that the film will begin in Italy—with a big car chase in the streets of Siena. Presumably, the chase will pass
into a foot chase that partly has already been shot in Italy in August 2007.
Part of the chase could also be a complex of tunnels—the Siena cisterns—which “are so realistic that you feel genuinely deep underground when walking through them.”

Another Siena-based set is a subterranean MI6 safe-house with a deep-water
well. “It’s more like a crypt out of a Harry Potter film, with massive stone columns and huge wooden beams.” Certainly, one of the Ken Adam-like sets that producers spoke about yesterday.

Wilson also mentioned an ambitious free-fall sequence involving
motion-control cameras.

Reporters were also able to get a glimpse of scenes that were filmed in M’s
Office—“a massive two-storey interior with ultra-modern décor, marble floors and frosted glass doors.” When M wants privacy, she can touch a button and the glass wall that separates their offices frosts over. The report comments, “Not
as impressive as an invisible car—nor as ridiculous.”

CommanderBond.net will keep you updated with all the latest news and details on Quantum of Solace.

Rory Kinnear To Play Bill Tanner

As the BBC revealed today, British actor Rory Kinnear has been casted to play
Bond’s ally Bill Tanner in Quantum of Solace. Bill Tanner is an original
character created by Ian Fleming and already featured in four previous James
Bond Films.

In 1974’s The Man With The Golden Gun, Tanner was portayed by Michael
Goodliffe, in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only by James Villiers and in GoldenEye
(1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) by Michael Kitchen.

The BBC reports that the crew was "shooting close-ups of M as she speaks to
her assistant Tanner" while reporters visited the set yesterday.

CommanderBond.net will keep you updated with all the latest news and details
on Quantum of Solace.

'Bond 22' is 'QUANTUM OF SOLACE'

EON Productions just announced at a Press Conference held at Pinewood Studios
near London, that the title for the 22nd installment of the James Bond series
will be

QUANTUM OF SOLACE

Furthermore, story details have emerged. As the BBC reports, “At a press conference at the facility, reporters were shown a minute of footage from the new film, including Bond swinging on a rope after an explosion at an art gallery in Siena, Italy. Another scene showed him meeting M – played by Dame Judi Dench – outside in the snow.”

CBn has scored the first stills from the shown video footage.

Reuters reports, that Quantom of Solace sees James Bond out for revenge on a mission that takes him to Austria, Italy and South America.

According to the synopsis, Bond girl Camille, played by Ukrainian-born Olga
Kurylenko, leads the secret agent to Dominic Greene, member of a mysterious
organization and a ruthless businessman, seeking to control huge natural
resources.

Greene is played by Mathieu Amalric, who starred in the
Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and Butterfly. The plot follows on
directly from Casino Royale as Bond aims to uncover the truth about Vesper,
the beauty who betrayed him, and discovers that she had been blackmailed. "James
Bond is after revenge, and Camille is after revenge and they have slightly
different goals, but in the end they are going to have to collaborate,"
Kurylenko told reporters.

On a tour of the main Bond set at Pinewood, journalists were shown 3 stages, all
of them set in the Italian city of Siena. In the largest, two actors including
Craig’s stunt double, swung from ropes and fought in an old art gallery.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for the developing story.

'Bond 22' Press Conference To Be Held In Pinewood Tomorrow

Sony Pictures have confirmed that there will be a press conference for Bond 22 tomorrow. The press conference will take place in
Pinewood Studios near London. Additionally, there will be a photo call.

Most of the main cast will be attending: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma
Arterton, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright and Dame Judi Dench. Director Marc
Forster and producders Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson will also be there.

It is not known if the title is revealed tomorrow.

There will be several TV feeds:

1st Feed:
Date: 24th January 2008
Time: 16:55-18:30 GMT

Satellite: IS 10.02 XP 65 Dig 19
Downlink Frequency: 11526.5 V
FEC: 3/4
Symbol: 5.632
Color: PAL

2nd Feed:
Date: 24th January 2008
Time: 1845-1915 GMT

3rd Feed:
Date: 25th January 2008
Time: 0600-0630 GMT

Satellite: Eutelsat W1 TXP B4 CH-4
Downlink Frequency: 11106.5 V
FEC: 3/4
Symbol: 5.632
Color: PAL

CommanderBond.net will keep you updated with all the latest news and details
on Bond 22.

Shooting At Lago Di Garda In April

As first reported by CBn
back in October, the German speaking magazine

Gardasee-Zeitung had reported that the Lago die Garda, a throughout Europe
famous mountain lake in Italy, could possibly serve as a location for Bond 22.
CommanderBond.net can reveal today that scenes for the latest James Bond film
will indeed be shot on the shores of Lago di Garda.

The magazine claimed in October that a sequence will be filmed in the Locanda
Punta San Vigilio, the villa of the Italian noodle manufacturer Giovanni Rana,
as well as in the Grand Hotel Fasano in Gardone. Whether these specific
locations will be used has not been confirmed so far, but CBn has learned
that scenes for Bond 22 will be shot in the
villages of Limone and Tremosine in
the last two weeks of April, right before
shooting in Bregenz begins.

Lago di Garda is the largest lake in Italy and is located in the north of the
country. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Verona
(to the south-east), Brescia (south-west), and Trentino region (north). The lake
is a major tourist destination, with a number of hotels and resorts along its
shore.

CommanderBond.net will keep you updated with all the latest news and details
on Bond 22.

SPOILERS: 'There is a connection there, yes…'

Film website Rotten
Tomatoes has scored the first interview with Daniel Craig since Bond 22
started filming 10 days ago. The following extracts
contain some spoilers, so if you don’t want to know anything about
Bond 22‘s
plot, better not read this article.

First of all, according to Craig, there is no title yet, not even behind the
scenes. When Rotten Tomatoes suggested in
an ironic way "The Lady Expects Too Much" as title, Daniel Craig laughingly asked, "Really, is that the rumour?
That’s quite good. I should write that one down…"

The more interesting part of the advance publication of the full interview
focused on the plot. Craig said, "It carries on from where the last one stopped.
We set up in the last one that there’s this organisation that is destabilising
the world’s economy because they want to take it over, and that’s his job now,
to go out and stop them." This statement corresponds with statements from an old
Daniel Craig interview in
2006. Back then, he said, "We have a group of people in
Casino Royale that are led by Le Chiffre; at least we think they’re led
by Le Chiffre. They’re trying to destabilize the world with money, they’re using
money as the tool… They don’t care who they kill or who they displace. And we
don’t know who the top man is yet. Hopefully we’ll find out who that is in the
next Bond movie." Quite.

Craig also commented on the casting of Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene: "I’m
over the moon with his casting. I met him very briefly on

Munich but I didn’t do any scenes with him.
Now I’ve got to know him on
Bond 22 […]
and thought it was amazing." When asked if Amalric was going to play the heavily
cited Algerian boyfriend of
Vesper, Craig stated, "There is a connection there, yes…"

Also, Craig revealed that he did not have to shoot any action scenes so far.
"We start that next week so I’m sure I’m going to be walking wounded for the
next six months from next week." He feels very happy about the choice of Marc
Forster as director: "The fact that Marc Forster’s come in to direct it just
makes my job a lot easier. He’s taken care of a lot of stuff that I just don’t
have to think about and I’m just getting on with acting."

And, he says, the pressure of taking on the mantle of James Bond gets no
easier. "I don’t know if I’ll ever feel comfortable with it," he said, "I mean,
it’s James Bond. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that place and get Zen about
it; it’s not that kind of role. But I’m enjoying what we’ve shot so far and I’m
planning to enjoy as much as I can of this filming process. Because, otherwise,
why do it? I think the pressure is plain to see. We’ve got to make it as good if
not better than the last one, and that’s the thing that matters. I don’t think
you can say there’s ever less pressure when you make a $200 million movie." Check out Rotten
Tomatoes for the full article.

Keep your eyes on the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest news and details on Bond 22.

Another Swiss in 'Bond 22'?

Swiss-born actor Anatole Taubman, who landed a role as villain in Bond 22 and
director Marc Forster, who grew up in Switzerland are possibly not the only
Swiss working on the latest James Bond film. The German-speaking online magazine
20minuten
reports today that Zurich-born actor Philipp von Schulthess has auditioned for a
role in Bond 22.

His press agent Sohela Emami told the magazine: "He in fact auditioned for a
role and it doesn’t look to bad for him. He could land a role in the latest
James Bond film". No contracts have been signed yet. The 32 year old is a
well-known Swiss stage actor, who recently landed his first big cinema role
alongside Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, a film about von Schulthess’s grandfather,
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who failed in assassinating Adolf Hitler in
1944.

As the key roles for Bond 22 are already casted, speculation is that Philipp
von Schulthess’s possible role will be a minor one.

Keep your eyes on the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest news and details on Bond 22.