The eagerly-anticipated new James Bond film, No Time To Die, 25th in the iconic series and Daniel Craig’s fifth adventure as Ian Fleming’s agent 007, has seen various revisions to its British, American and worldwide release dates over the course of pre-production, production and post-production.
Originally scheduled for release in April, 2020, the new movie had to be rescheduled by seven months until November, 2020, in light of medical advice about the Coronavirus pandemic and the wide-scale closure of cinemas in many parts of the globe, such as the UK, USA, many European countries, and China.
The new film was thus given a 12th November, 2020, release date in the UK, and a 25th November, 2020, release date for the American market. It was a bold but, in hindsight, very necessary decision on the part of the EON producers and the studio.
The official 007 twitter account, however, revealed on 13th June that there has been a slight ‘tweak’ made to the U.S. release and they will try another day. While the UK release date remains the same, the U.S. date has now been rolled forward slightly, to 20th November, 2020, which means that American 007 fans will have a bit less time to wait to see the movie as news and reviews flow out of the UK. The news has been welcomed by many U.S. Bond aficionados.
Beware Spoilers
As many Bond fans will have no doubt read in the press and on social media, it seems there have been a number of major spoilers in the last few days concerning the plotline and key characters for No Time To Die. This is a pity. Much of this has emerged from some production call-sheets from the Italian leg of the filming, which were placed on e-bay.
Some of this detail was already in the public domain or, rather, was mainly known in the world of Bond fandom (such as the villain’s interest in genetics and the location of his lair). The timescale of much of the main contents of the new adventure has also been confirmed: it takes place five years after the end of Spectre. There was also some information about a young five-year old girl, named Mathilde. Indeed, there has been considerable speculation about the latter character.
Not everyone has been happy, though, about some of this. Former Bond woman Britt Ekland, for example, who starred as Mary Goodnight in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), was quoted in The Times (13th June) as saying of one alleged game-changing plot development that it ‘ruins the fantasy’ of the character. Some Bond fan forums have also seen quite a debate.
Many of the latest spoilers have been covered in the media and on some Bond fan sites in considerable detail, so the JBIFC has taken the decision not to share that level of detail here. Those interested can easily track down the spoilers elsewhere. We think many Bond fans are sensible enough to make up their own minds about whether they wish to read the detail or not. Take care, however.
And, remember (we say this as ultra-Bond fans!) there’s something to be said for not knowing too much about the plot of a new James Bond film. The year 2020, in particular, is surely a year when we shall need great entertainment, some nice surprises and pure ‘escapism’. James Bond always delivers.
Watch this space for further news as it develops. You know the name, and you know the number.
