We’re almost a year out from the release of the film still known as Bond 25. What's even scarier is the fact that the film is starting to get ready to shoot within the next couple of weeks, and it sounds like some key actors still haven’t been brought up to speed on what the film will be about. At least, that’s what Ralph Fiennes is saying, as he was recently asked about what his newly installed M might be doing in the next adventure.
How or why Fiennes could be left in the dark on Bond 25’s goings on might feel like an interesting turn of events, but we know exactly why the Academy Award winning actor is absolutely clueless on what he’s doing. In his own words, Ralph Fiennes provided his reasoning:
I don't know the name of the film, I haven't had access to a screenplay yet... Honestly, I'm not being coy. I don't know when it starts or what the story is.)
So a couple weeks before this would-be blockbuster of 2020 is set to get serious about giving fans what they’d want out of Daniel Craig’s final round as James Bond, his spymaster boss doesn’t know what orders he’ll be giving out in Bond 25. This might sound like a rather troubling turn of events, but thinking things over a little longer, it's not much of a surprise.
While The Telegraph is reporting that Bond 25’s script, which has recently undergone some retooling by writer Scott Z. Burns, still hasn’t made its way into Ralph Fiennes’ hands, it might be because he’s not on the earlier side of the shooting schedule. And besides this script revision, one of the many changes triggered by previous director Danny Boyle’s departure from the project, there’s more reasons why he might Fiennes might not be in the loop quite yet.
Most importantly, this could be a side effect of Ralph Fiennes’ schedule taking yet another recent turn, as the untitled prequel to the Kingsman universe moved to the very Valentine’s day release date that Bond 25 vacated. So why give the poor man a script when he’s already busy working one out at the moment? Also, taking into account the events of the previous film, M’s role may still be firming up in the newer script.
When we last left him in Spectre, the man previously known as Gareth Mallory had been promoted to the post of M, head of MI6’s operations in British intelligence. And judging by what he went through in that film’s adventures, as well as the fact that his predecessor was removed from her post due to her untimely death, he’ll undoubtedly be vetting his co-workers a little harder. So the return of Fiennes’ fellow franchise co-stars Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris should help narrow down the list of people who can be trusted, and those who he needs to talk to.
Director Cary Joji Fukunaga is undoubtedly working very hard on Bond 25, which is scheduled to head to theaters on April 8, 2020. It’s definitely going to keep him busy for the next couple of months, but we’d like to assume that at some point soon, he’ll be able to pop that script into the mailbox in order for Ralph Fiennes to start learning his lines.
