It’s official: Daniel Craig is returning as James Bond in the upcoming, still unnamed, Bond 23. The film will begin shooting toward the end of this year and hit theaters on Nov. 9, 2012, according to MGM and EON, the companies responsible for the film. Production on Bond was resumed in November 2010, and director Sam Mendes confirmed he would still helm the film in early December.
It has been a long road for Bond 23. Production on the film was suspended in April 2010 when a debt-stricken MGM–the studio that owns the rights to the James Bond franchise–filed for bankruptcy protection. Another major production, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit endured a similarly treacherous route toward production due to the problems at MGM. The studio owed more than $4 billion dollars to investors and underwent bankruptcy in December.
Though he has remained vocally committed to the project, many feared Daniel Craig’s overbooked schedule could push Bond 23 back even further or prevent him from returning. The actor will be starring in Dream House, Cowboys & Aliens, The Adventures of TinTin, as well as a remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. However, as busy as he’s been, Craig took the time to voice Bond in two video games in the last year, GoldenEye 007 and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.
Now all we can hope is that the script for Bond 23 is better than Quantum of Solace. John Logan, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade have been confirmed as the writers of the screenplay. Let’s hope they have some good ideas to push Bond forward.
