And the official title for Bond 24 is Spectre.

The announcement was made this morning at Pinewood Studios in London at a press conference marking the start of production on the new film. The producers also announced that Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz will be heading up the guest cast for the film, being joined by Andrew (Sherlock) Scott, David (Guardians Of The Galaxy) Bautista, Monica Bellucci and Léa (Blue Is The Warmest Color) Seydoux would be joining the cast for this outing of the adventures of British secret agent James Bond. According to producers, Waltz will play Oberhauser, Seydoux is Madeleine Swann, Bellucci is Lucia Sciarra, Bautista is Mr Hinx and Scott is Denbigh.

Returning to the franchise, of course, will be Daniel Craig as Bond along with Ralph Fiennes as the new M, Rory Kinnear as Tanner, Ben Whishaw as Q and Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny.

The official logline for the film reads as follows –

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. 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.

The name Spectre should be familiar to even the most casual Bond fan. Standing for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, the organization has been a thorn in Bond’s side for decades of films, as far back as the franchise’s second installment, From Russia With Love. Perhaps their most vicious and personal attack on Bond was when they killed his minutes-old bride Stacy in the finale of 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Interestingly, it was recently rumored that Waltz was going to be playing Blofeld and he still could be despite the name of Oberhauser being attached to his character today. It is very possible that it is a false ID being used by the terrorist mastermind. Of course, Waltz could just be playing a lieutenant in the organization. For his first few appearances in the franchise, Blofeld’s face was not seen. It is possible that in the rebooted franchise, the producers may want to return to the trope if Spectre is going to become a multi-film adversary for Bond.

Spectre will be in theaters in the UK on October 23rd and in the United States on November 6, 2015.

One of the great things, at least in my opinion, has been how the rebooted James Bond franchise has moved away from episodic adventures of the classic British superspy and towards a franchise where each installment has consequences and a lasting effect on the character. Quantum Of Solace, the second film in the rebooted series, was a direct sequel to 2006’s franchise relaunch Casino Royale and followed up many plot lines left dangling at the end of that film. The world building continued in 2012’s Skyfall, which filled in much of Bond’s personal history as well as restored many classic elements of the franchise – specifically the return of Miss Moneypenny and gadget creator Q.

Skyfall screenwriter John Logan has been drafted back to service to help craft the upcoming, still untitled 24th James Bond adventure as well as the 25th installment and this past week, while at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote his upcoming horror TV series Penny Dreadful, he sat down with the folks at IGN to dish a bit about what might be in store for agent 007 when his next film hits movie screens in 2015.

Logan first stared that plot specifics were of course being kept top secret, joking “All I can say about Bond is that I’m happily writing it. [Skyfall and Bond 24 director] Sam [Mendes] would rappel through the window and kill me.”

He also stresses that through Bond 24 and Bond 25, the franchise will continue to take classic elements from both the film series and Ian Flemming’s novel from which the movies sprang and contemporize them for modern audiences.

My goal is to write a great movie that’s appropriate, to build on what we did on Skyfall, but make it its own unique animal. The themes, ideas and the characters from Skyfall can obviously continue on, because it is a franchise, and it is an ongoing story. So I think there’s resonance from Skyfall in the new movie.

I grew up on the Bond movies. The first one I saw was Diamonds Are Forever, when I was a kid. I just loved them to pieces. I love all the elements, from the books — mostly from the novels; going back to Ian Flemming is where I started with Skyfall — and there’s certainly elements of the movies and the novels that we’ve brought into the new movie, as they did into Skyfall.

As to whether one of those elements may be the return of classic Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, which franchise producers Eon Productions recently finally locked down the rights to, Logan remained coy, replying “You know, I think our villain’s appropriate to the story we’re telling.”

The fact that IGN’s report states that Logan was talking about not just the upcoming Bond 24, but the following Bond 25 as well, harkens back to rumors that the films were going to be joined together in telling one, larger canvas story.

There was a time when Twentieth Century Fox seemed eager to get right to work on a sequel to their English-language adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, with an eye for getting the film out sometime in late 2012/early 2013. Well, here we are smack in the middle of that initially projected timeframe and despite screenwriter Steve Zaillian having turned in a script that the studio likes, there has been no forward movement on the project.

So what’s the holdup? According to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, the delay all boils down to money. Specifically, although the film managed to make $233 million worldwide against its $90 million budget, the film is only considered by the studio as a modest success. And while they want to continue with their adaption of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling trilogy, they also want to do it in a way that might maximize their profits a bit more – i.e., they want to make the next film cheaper.

The chief stumbling block in decreasing the film’s budget is one of its stars, Daniel Craig. The Hollywood Reporter’s story alleges that the actor feels he is due a pay raise, especially in light of his latest James bond film Skyfall passing the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office receipts. And if Craig doesn’t budge in his salary demands the Reporter is saying that the studio is contemplating writing his character of investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist out of the film entirely.

While it sounds like sacrilege to fans of the original novels and their Swedish film adaptions, excising Blomkvist from the film doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to do. For much of the novel’s narrative the reporter is separated from the books’ heroine on Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), and when it came time for Zaillian to start in on the adaption there was some speculation that he would actually change some plotlines to give them more onscreen time together. Would it be too hard for him to nudge things in the opposite direction and turn it into a solo Lisbeth film?

The only problem here is that Fox has already paid out a mid-seven figures sum to Zaillian for his work on the screenplay and would have to write another check to have him do another draft. Currently, Zaillian is working on the HBO series Criminal Justice, starring James Gandolfini, so there is a question of his availability even if Fox is willing to open up their wallets.

Meanwhile, while he waits for this impasse to be solved, director David Fincher is still working at developing a number of other projects. He recently signed on for an adaption of Gillian Flynn’s psychological thriller novel Gone Girl, though it is being reported that Flynn’s screenplay of her own book has a ways to go before being camera ready. Another Fincher project that does have a screenplay polished enough for production is his take on Jules Verne’s classic novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, though the director and studio Disney are not seeing eye-to-eye on the budget.

1. Skyfall (Sony/Columbia/MGM, 3,505 Theaters, 143 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I am a bit of an outsider here at FilmBuffOnline in the fact that I am not a rabid of James Bond fan. While I do own all the films, I have only seen a handful of them (this I hope rectify when my free time becomes more abundant, hopefully with about 15 years or so).

But I do appreciate James Bond, especially what he brings to the big screen. He has created some many iconic images (with just about every actor who has played him) that he deserves his exalted spot in the world of pop culture.

This is the third film in the Daniel Craig-era of the character, one with a more serious and gritty feel to it. But you can see why the character has lasted 50 years. I dare you to watch the trailer and not squeal just a bit, especially when Craig, as Bond, fixes his cuffs after landing in the sawed-off train car.

Earlier this week, it was reported that John Logan had signed on to write the next two James Bond films and that they would connect to form one bigger story, something that has not been done in the franchise’s 50 year history. And to hear Daniel Craig speak, it won’t be happening now either.

Speaking to German film site Filmstarts (via Bleeding Cool), Craig dismissed the idea as “impossible” –

I don’t know where that’s come from. It’s impossible to do a two-parter … All we’re trying to do at the moment is get the next one sorted out, and that will standalone, and if I’m able I’ll do another one after that.

Far be it from me to contradict James Bond, but I do think that doing a two-part Bond film would be far from impossible. For one thing, the two films could very easily be produced simultaneously, the way Back To The Future Parts 2 & 3 or the two Matrix sequels were. And Peter Jackson has done that one better with his The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films.

Also, his assertion about “if I’m able to do another one after that,” comes across as weak tea, as we know that he is under contract for another two films. It might not be so much his decision as to whether he does two more as it would be the producers. And since Craig’s run as Bond has both creatively and financially revitalized the five decades old franchise, I don’t foresee them wanting to move on to another actor just yet.

Although it started off late last week as a rumor, it has now been confirmed that Hugo and The Aviator screenwriter John Logan will be writing the next two James Bond adventures.

Reportedly, Logan pitched the idea for an original two-film story to producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and is currently at working on his first draft. Logan had previously worked on the latest installment of the Bond franchise, Skyfall, polishing an initial screenplay draft by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

At the best of times, Eon Productions likes to keep the story details tightly under wraps, so I don’t expect to hear actual concrete details on what Logan has in store for British spy 007 for at least another year or two when production actual gets under way on the first film of the two films. But this does mark the first time that the franchise has actually planned beforehand to have specific storylines follow from one movie to the next, rather than figuring out how to do so after the fact.

Personally, I am excited to see what kind of story that Logan has concocted that is so big that it can’t be contained in just one film. Will we see a return of the terrorist organization known as Quantum that was hinted at in the franchise reboot Casino Royale and then fully revealed in the follow up Quantum Of Solace? We know that they won’t be making an appearance in Skyfall, but I believe it is unclear as to whether it has been decided to totally abandoned that plotline or not.

Although there has been no word, I would not be surprised if the two films were produced together as a cost-saving measure by the producers.

And just to add some grist to the speculation mill, these two films mark the last two of franchise star Daniel Craig’s current contract. Might they be planning some sort of spectacular exit for him?

Meanwhile, Skyfall opened in England and a few additional foreign territories this past weekend to an impressive $77 million box office take. It opens in the US on November 9.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

Although we here in the US have a few more weeks to wait, the latest James Bond adventure Skyfall opens in the UK this Friday. The film’s Royal Premier was held last night in London and our go-to guy on all things James Bond, Tom S., was there and filed this report. Now he doesn’t go into spoiler territory at all, this is just some quick impressions on the film.

After a four year gap, Bond is back, well almost. Despite being Craig’s third outing as 007 in the rebooted franchise, the filmmakers have only finally gotten to the point where we can say, our classic James Bond is back, but we will have to wait till Bond 24 to find out for sure.

Attending the Royal premiere is always a magical experience and last night was no exception. The film was very well received and definitely introduced new elements into Craig’s world of Bond which were a hit, such as a very rousing round of applause when a certain car was revealed, not to mention an incredibly clever past reference, which although cute, led to much continuity debate amongst us Bond geeks into the wee hours.

Overall impressions…great installment into the new world of James Bond. Purists may still take issue, but the film offers enough edge of your seat excitement for even the casual filmgoer.

Well, it sounds like the four year wait through MGM’s financail difficulties was worth it. Now it is just two more weeks until the film’s November 9th release stateside.

We’ve had a teaser trailer and a television commercial, and now here is the first two full-on trailers for the upcoming James Bond adventure Skyfall.

At first glance, it seems as if this third film of the Daniel Craig-starring rebooted franchise is bringing in some more elements from the previous five decades worth of films. We get to see Bond’s first meeting with the British Secret Service’s quartermaster, codenamed Q, this time being played by Ben Whishaw. But more intriguingly, the trailer reveals a plot point that is definitely lifted from one of Sean Connery’s Bond adventures. The trailer also provides our first good look at a bleach-blond Javier Bardem as the film’s villain, Silva.

What I find interesting in the two trailers – one for US audiences and an international trailer – is the way that they use much of the same footage but have different modes established at the beginning.

Skyfall opens in the US on November 9, though the lucky British get it on October 26.

Fortunately, Bond’s second appearance, in the form of a new commercial for the upcoming Bond cinematic adventure Skyfall. This new 30-second clip features some more action beats as shot by the Oscar winning cinematographer Roger Deakins under the direction of Sam Mendes than we got to see in the initial teaser trailer released back in May.

The film is due to be released internationally on October 26 and in the US on November 9.

Good morning. Let’s start the week off with a little game of word association.

Skyfall? Trailer.

That’s right. Sony has just released the first trailer for the latest installment in the James Bond franchise, Skyfall. The film is due to be released internationally on October 26 and in the US on November 9. While it does consist of mostly quick flashes of scenes, it does give us an idea of some of the visuals Sam Mendes, a director not necessarily known for action films, has in mind for the film.