James Bond is back in business, and his next assignment has a name: “Spectre.”
That’s the official title for the 24th James Bond movie, directed by Sam Mendes, the man behind “Skyfall.” Daniel Craig once again returns as Agent 007, presumably to kill all the bad guys, sleep with all of the women, and do awesome stunts like this:
And he’s not alone. Just announced are the new cast members joining Craig for the Bond franchise’s next installment, starting with the newest non-human cast member: the film’s new car, the Astin Martin DB10. “You will see what it can do when you see the movie,” says Mendes.
Actual human cast members new to the series are Andrew Scott as Denbigh, David Bautista as Mr. Hinx, Monica Belluci as Lucia Sciarra, Léa Seydoux as Madeline Swan, and Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser.
Returning for the sequel: Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny.
The movie’s seven-month shoot will take Bond across the globe, with locations including Austria and Morocco. Much of the film will be shot at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, where the announcement took place.
As for what the title means? Longtime Bond fans know all about SPECTRE, the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Agent 007 has squared off against these terrorists time and time again, in movies like “Thunderball” and “Dr. No.” SPECTRE’s presence, right there front and center in the title of the new movie, fuels the fire of some theories surrounding Christoph Waltz’s character.
Should we assume that the rumors are true, that Waltz is playing Blofeld, the SPECTRE supervillain previously played on screen by Donald Pleasance, Max von Sydow, and others? Not necessarily. In Bond lore, there is indeed a character named Hannes Oberhauser, an Austrian climber and skiing instructor who acted as James’ surrogate father of sorts. One day, Oberhauser mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Is Waltz playing Bond’s long lost mentor, or is Waltz playing Bond’s brand new tormentor? Could he be some combination of both? We’ll find out in less than a year.
EmoticonEmoticon