The new edition of the popular British cinema magazine Empire has a preview of the new 007 movie No Time To Die, inviting its readers to ‘Brace yourself for the most emotional and bruising Bond yet’.
The December, 2019, issue of the best-selling magazine, which has just hit the shelves of retailers in the UK, contains a special ‘2020 Preview’ of upcoming films during the next year, and film journalist Chris Hewitt offers some brief but interesting coverage of what will be Daniel Craig’s fifth (and probably final) James Bond adventure.
The short Bond 25 preview includes some context on how the 007 producers were determined to entice Craig back for a fifth turn as Ian Fleming’s iconic secret agent. Despite the scene of Bond appearing to ride off into the sunset (so to speak) with Madeleine by his side at the end of Spectre, and an apparent hunt for a new actor to play 007, Hewitt reveals that Barbara Broccoli always had her ideal Bond in mind for movie no.25: Daniel Craig.
When asked what her coping strategy would have been had she not managed to persuade Craig to return, the EON producer laughed: ‘I was gonna go put a duvet over my head and cry for three months, or three years’. But, of course, it did not come to that: ‘We wooed him back. He did feel there was unfinished business’.
According to Hewitt, it does appear that this time No Time To Die will serve as a true conclusion to Craig’s five-film arc, which began with Casino Royale: ‘It looks like the end of this era’, EON co-producer Michael G. Wilson told the mag: ‘We couldn’t ask for a better Bond’.
Nobody Does It Better
Concerning the storyline to No Time To Die, in which Bond is seen living blissfully with Madeleine but is drawn back into the fray one last time, thankfully there are no major spoilers in the Empire preview. However, Broccoli commented: ‘We always like to have a very personal trial for him emotionally, put him up against something that he finds difficult to deal with emotionally. And we’ve thrown the book at him on this one’. The director Cary Fukunaga will also ensure there will be traditional Bond spectacle, too, with stunts, planes and boats, together (it is rumoured) with one of the biggest explosions in cinema history.
Interestingly, the Empire preview confirms that Oscar-winner Rami Malek’s villain is named Safin, a baddy who represents a new type of threat. Broccoli told the mag: ‘He is really the supervillain. He’s the one that really gets under Bond’s skin. He’s a nasty piece of work’. As Hewitt observes, the new Bond film (which will be released in the UK in April, 2020) will represent a superb chance for Daniel Craig to go out on an all-time high. We can’t wait!
The new edition of Empire magazine (December, 2019) is on sale in UK retailers now. The JBIFC understands the preview is a taste of some much more comprehensive coverage of the new Bond movie in an up-coming issue of the glossy magazine.
Oscar-winner Rami Malek plays the nasty new villain Safin