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Bond 24: UnSPECTRE-cular Announcement but Plenty of Good News

10 years ago
by Vanessa

Thursday’s live-streamed announcement of the newest entry to the James Bond franchise was not as flashy as the much compared Marvel Cinematic Universe press conferences for new releases. Some even quipped it wasn’t worth live-blogging the information from the comforts of their homes or offices. However Pinewood in Gloucestershire was the setting of some interesting reveals regarding the next instalment of Ian Fleming’s classic series.

Sam Mendes is helming the project we can now call Spectre, which starts shooting on Monday and will take Bond, played for the fourth time by Daniel Craig, through the UK, Austria, Mexico, Italy and Morocco. Spectre continues with the established characters of Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw’s Q and Ralph Fiennes as 007’s boss, M. Also introduced were Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux as eye candy, with Monica Bellucci refreshingly similar in age to James Bond – with speculations rife that she won’t be the Bond Girl that lasts, maybe because she calls herself a Bond Woman instead. Will she be more than a match for James Bond then?

Further new additions are Andrew Scott, better known as the enigma that is Moriarty from the BBC’s Sherlock, playing MI6 employee Denbigh, and Christoph Waltz, famous for his roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained. He also has further bad guy credentials as villain in The Green Hornet, so between the two, we cannot be sure which will be the ultimate villain, assisted by henchman Mr. Hinx, played by Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy fame. Sadly Stephen Hawking wasn’t amongst the presented cast, though he may well have been amongst those under close consideration for a villainous role. Scott’s Denbigh could take us along the route of destruction from the inside, though we saw this play out in Skyfall already, whereas Waltz is billed as Oberhauser, a character who taught 007 how to ski as a child. However it wouldn’t surprise many to find him turn out to be an “old” nemesis of James Bond (you never know in this new continuity…)

Blofeld is head of the crime syndicate SPECTRE – Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – doesn’t that seem familiar? With the title seeming such a dead give-away as to whom Bond will be battling this time, as the curt description reads: “A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. 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” it seems a foregone conclusion that Blofeld will feature heavily in this movie. Considering the epic nature of Skyfall and its plot-twists, the return of Neil Purvis, John Logan and Rob Wade as script writers indicates it won’t be so black and white though.

While the presentation featured the new Aston Martin DB10, solving the question of what James Bond’s ride is, fans are still left to puzzle out many other aspects – such as who will sing the theme song – Lana del Ray and Sam Smith are favourites, both with insiders and James Bond enthusiasts.

People also took to Twitter to suggest lyrics, more humorous than serious.

What do you think of the reveal? Who do you want to sing the theme song? How do you reckon the plot will unfold? Comment below!

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