In the 52-year history of the James Bond franchise, there have been many memorable villains, organizations, and titles that have gone down in cinematic history. The road to such infamy begins with the now traditional press conference that kicks off the production of the next James Bond film, an event that's announced everything from titles to cast members, and in some cases the new actor to inherit the 007 mantle. That is exactly what happened in the UK this morning, and we have the details for the next thrilling installment of the James Bond series.
After a pre-show detailing the history of Bond, the Daniel Craig era was retold through a clip show showing portions of each of the Craig era Bond films. It was then that the 007.com simulcast showed Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli taking to the stage at Pinewood Studios' famed "007" soundstage, or as Mendes referred to it, "the stage where budgets go to die." It was then that we got our first glimpse at the title of the film we'd been calling Bond 24 ever since Skyfall was in production. Without further ado, allow us to reveal to you the title of Bond 24 with the image below.
Knowing that this would touch off some cheers, and a torrent of questions, Sam Mendes cut off any inquiries and confirmed all suspicions with the following statement:
Those of you who have some knowledge of the Bond franchise and the legend of Bond will probably have some idea what that refers to. But I couldn't possibly comment."
With the title in hand, Mendes then went to reveal the "Bond car," that will be front and center in SPECTRE: the Aston Martin DB-10. Mendes teased that, "you will see what it can do when you come and see the movie." The car was mentioned as the "non-human" cast member, before the line up of human cast members were announced and lined up. Naturally, the "Whitehall Brigade" was confirmed, as Rory Kinnear, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Ralph Fiennes were all announced and walked out to take their moment in the spotlight.
This is where the cast announcement became a lot of fun, as the new kids in town were announced with character names assigned to most of them. Sherlock's Andrew Scott was announced as Mr. Denbigh, a new member of the Whitehall Brigade, which means there's a chance he could be a good guy. Of course, considering the rumors as of late, and the fact that he was standing next to Dave Bautista (who was newly announced as henchman Hinx,) could have a lot of people speculating that Scott won't be good for the entire run of SPECTRE. As far as the traditional "Bond Girls" go, we've learned that not only was Lea Seydoux correctly identified as the now named Madeleine Swann, but the recent eleventh hour rumors of Monica Bellucci being cast were, indeed, true. She will be playing the role of Lucia Sciarra.
Then came the moment, and I mean "the" moment... Christoph Waltz has officially been confirmed as a cast member in SPECTRE's clutches, but interestingly enough his character name wasn't announced by Sam Mendes at the conference. The official 007 Twitter feed was more generous though, as it provided the following information.
A couple interesting points about this name: first off, it's totally the name that was previously rumored for the character when Waltz's name was first tipped as a SPECTRE cast member. Second, and most interestingly, the name roughly translates to English as "the House Of Lords." Could this be denoting Blofeld's position as the head of SPECTRE? Or perhaps it's a sly nod to the subplot in On Her Majesty's Secret Service where Blofeld was seeking to be confirmed as a member of noble blood? Either way, the information that was revealed this morning is tantalizing enough to ramp up speculation as to what danger James Bond will be facing next.
SPECTRE shows its true face to the world on November 6, 2015. You can watch the entire press conference in the video, which is included on Page 2.
