There are not many things that would have me out of bed and waiting for them at 3:00 in the morning, but I love the Daniel Craig era of James Bond, and I'm ready for the follow-up to “Skyfall.”
Sony's done a tremendous job of treating James Bond like the crown jewel of the company, and they're treating this next movie like a major event. My guess is that we're not going to have too many more films with Craig playing the role, so I want each one to be special at this point.
The live-stream began about ten minutes out from the actual event, and so far it's just Bond themes, but as the details are announced, we'll update right here and then discuss the title once the event's done.
Looks like they're making the announcements at the Bond Stage at Pinewood. Fitting. I've been outside that stage, but never inside it. I was there as they were shooting some of the Venice scenes for “Casino Royale,” but for a different movie, and it drove me crazy being that close and not getting inside.
Great montage they ran as they continue the count-down. If they weren't able to cut a preposterously great highlights reel to the Carly Simon “Nobody Does It Better,” then they would probably have to quit in shame. There's so much to play with from the entire history of the series.
The next highlights reel is all Daniel Craig, a scene from “Skyfall.” And then they start reciting the most basic facts possible, listing the different Bonds. It's time. Come on. Enough.
They'll announce title, cast members, and car.
Okay. Countdown's over. At, appropriately enough, 00:00:07.
One more highlights reel, because you can never have enough.
Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli walk out, and he opens things with a joke about how this is the soundstage “where budgets go to die,” and there's not a peep from the press that are there to see the event.
Awesome.
First up, the title. SPECTRE. This is everything I could have hoped. Hot damn.
They start shooting Monday morning and they're rehearsing now. London. Rome. Mexico City. Tangier, Morocco. Back to the snow and the Alps in Austria. They'll be shooting for seven months.
It looks like the full crew is back, including John Logan and Rob Wade and Neal Purvis all writing. And Hoyt Van Hoytema is signed to shoot the film, which is pretty sexy news.
The first cast member is not human. It is, in fact, the continuation of the 50-year relationship with Aston-Martin, and the new DB-10 is a gorgeous machine.
The actual cast begins with Rory Kinnear as Tanner, Ben Whishaw as Q, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M, and Andrew Scott as Denby, rounding out the support team for Bond.
The streaming live feed's taking a beating right now.
Dave Bautista is Mr. Hinks, Monica Bellucci is Lucia Sciara, and playing Madeline Swan is Lea Seydoux. Those are our bad guys, I'm presuming, headed up by Christoph Waltz, who we have to assume is taking on the Blofeld role in some form if this is SPECTRE finally.
Okay… so the event's over. Let's take a moment. I'm excited by the title. Sure, it's a little bit blunt-force-trauma and on the nose, but I want to see Bond finally go up against what could be the biggest, most ambitious realization of SPECTRE so far. They've fought to get the rights to use this organization, so now I want to see it. I want them to make the end-all-be-all version of this story while they've got Craig and Mendes and this team in place. I am ready for what I hope is going to be a real work-out in all things Bond. This team got it so right last time, and they set the stage for something even cooler this time. Let's hope they pull it off.