While he obviously didn’t spill any actual story details, screenwriter Peter Morgan has disclosed that the next James Bond film will feature a “shocking story.” The promise came in a short interview that the writer did with Bond fansite MI-6.
Morgan is perhaps better known for having worked on the dramatic films The Queen and Frost/Nixon. Morgan was hired to rewrite an original script by long-time franchise writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Morgan’s hiring fits in to what appears to be the new pattern in the scripting of the series with Purvis and Wade providing initial script drafts and then a writer with credits in more straight dramatic fare coming in for a rewrite. Previously Crash and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis polished the screenplays for the franchise relaunch Casino Royale and its follow-up Quantum Of Solace.
Although production on the next untitled Bond film is currently on hold due to MGM being up for sale, it is hoped that it will go into active pre-production sometime next February. Both series stars Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench have indicated that the current, although not officially announced, plan is to start shooting at the end of next year with a presumably late 2011 release. No director has been attached to the film yet.
