Earlier this year, it was reported that Steven Soderbergh was making his return to big screen directing for the first time since 2013’s Side Effects and that he’d once again team with his friend and our favorite superstar, Channing Tatum. This time, however, there will be no penises pumped or laps danced, as Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky is about a heist that takes place during a NASCAR race. The cast is coming together nicely, as Adam Driver previously joined Seth MacFarlane and Riley Keough. Now, according to Deadline, Katherine Heigl is in final talks to take the next step out of the kitty litter, and she may be joined by Daniel Craig.
Now, if this were about any other actor, it would just be typical casting news that would get a few people buzzing. But if Craig is being cast in anything right now, people are going to ask: “Hey, what’s up with James Bond?” Craig famously said that he’d rather slit his wrists than play the spy again, and while people debated about whether or not he was joking, the lack of a solid answer has led to a ridiculous amount of speculation. Most recently, the Daily Mail had “sources” who said Craig turned down $100 million for two more films, but the BBC quickly countered with word from Craig’s rep that this was false.
While those sources have been chattering, fans have lit a new torch for Tom Hiddleston to become Bond, and the extremely likable actor even admitted that he’d take the role. Deadline also previously confirmed that actor Jamie Bell has talked to producer Barbara Broccoli about the iconic role, and because Craig will star in the television series Purity and is now likely to join the cast of Logan Lucky, that’s pretty much the nail in his Bond coffin. But even more, there’s one huge matter that is being left out of most “source”-based reports: James Bond 25 still doesn’t even have a distributor!
There have been no negotiations on where the Bond movie will land (Sony or Warner Bros. are out front on this) and although it was thought that negotiations might start after the first quarter 2016, parties are not likely to engage in negotiations until later this year. There is no workable script yet and the creative elements have yet to come into place. (Via Deadline)
Producer Michael G. Wilson said last November that he expected the Bond franchise to have a new distributor “probably in January or February,” and yet nothing. And sure, SPECTRE had some similar problems – mostly involving it being way over budget before it even started filming – and it made it to theaters just fine, but a lot of people would argue that the finished product wasn’t worth the trouble. Perhaps this is a chicken and egg issue, though. Maybe the distributors are waiting for a star, and maybe MGM is waiting for a distributor before naming a star.
All we really know at this point is that for a film that is supposed to begin production later this year and be in theaters in 2017, Bond 25 is an absolute mess.
