James Bond franchise future in doubt and/or in safe hands

Daniel Craig_James Bond_Not ConfirmedWhile I was busy at work trying to get my replacement phone to recognize my settings so that I could once again receive Twitter updates on it (long story short: never lose your phone in a cab on New Year’s Eve, okay?), the Internet was a-buzz with the news that the new James Bond movie was going to be delayed near-indefinitely.

Or was it?

The culprit this time seemed to be the self-proclaimed experts at MI6.com, the “home of James Bond 007” who reported on series producer Michael G. Wilson’s status update to Total Film.com:

Our timeline [for the next film is] a little up in the air what with the situation at MGM, so we have to be flexible. We just don’t know enough about the situation to comment, but we know it’s uncertain.

And what is that situation over at MGM Studios, exactly? Why, the news from this past September that MGM was about to go bankrupt because they’re defaulting on their loans from 2005. The fact that the studio was granted a slight reprieve until January 31 isn’t stopping the L.A. Times bloggers and everyone else from speculating on the fate of the company, its catalog, and its upcoming films, and representatives from every other studio or conglomerate out there who’s eligible to either help refinance the company or buy it outright are keeping mum.

Which brings us back around to James Bond.

Not long after both pieces were published, another bit of news surfaced courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter and its “Heat Vision” bloggers Matthew Belloni and Borys Kit who say that not only are things moving forward, but that MGM may have found a director for the film in Sam Mendes (Jarhead, Away We Go).

Of course Belloni and Kit use the dreaded phrase “in negotiations” to describe the degree of finality and don’t even attribute their findings to an unnamed source, so I’m taking that bit of news with a grain of salt. And when an article by Variety‘s Dave McNary posted yesterday at 6:19 pm Pacific said, “The beleaguered studio refused to confirm reports about Mendes being in talks for the 23rd Bond pic” then I’m definitely not buying into the hysteria.

(Or maybe the studio is keeping quiet as to not scare off a potential bidder or refinancier they really like… arrrrgh! I refuse to be drawn into this game!)

The best part, though, is that thanks to Twitter, we at least have a great list of names for the new Bond pic, should Mendes indeed be chosen as its director.

From Lester with Love, anyone?

One thought on “James Bond franchise future in doubt and/or in safe hands

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