Film News: Anthony Hopkins Rumoured to be next James Bond Villain

Production on the as yet untitled 23rd James Bond movie may have started, with a provisional release scheduled for November 2012. Production had been put on hold due to financial issues with its production studio MGM. But there still are rumours as to who the main roles will be going to, as only Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench have signed to appear in the next film, with Sam Mendes slated to direct the blockbuster.

The Sun newspaper reported rumours earlier this month that they believe the next villain to battle against the eponymous British spy would be none other than Sir Anthony Hopkins, famed for playing the terrifying cannibal doctor Dr. Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. Their film news sources claimed that the producers of the Bond franchise are planning to use Hopkins as a reoccurring villain, much in the vein of the original super villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But their sources claim that Hopkins is reluctant to commit to a multi picture deal.

The James Bond franchise is famed for having brought a wide range of now-famous villains to the big screen, with comedic large egos to take over the world. Take a look at some of the best villains who had their plans spoiled by Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Without Blofeld, there would be no image of a Bond super villain. He wasn’t fully introduced to audiences onscreen until You Only Live Twice but had appeared earlier as the head of the villainous organisation, SPECTRE. Film reviewers have also attributed the characteristics of Blofeld to the great movie cliché of what we now expect from a megalomaniac super villain, famously paid homage to in the guise of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series of movie parodies.

Elliot Carver
Jonathan Pryce’s incarnation of the atypical Bond villain in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies wasn’t an attempt to bring the long lost super villain of the 60’s into the modern Bond, but was an attempt to show that there are villains like him out there in the real world. Supposedly based on the media barons Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, Elliot Carver’s intent was to gain global media domination, something that is all too familiar in our current multimedia world…

Bond villains have fuelled the imagination of a generation of movie goers over the last 50 years, and never cease to come up with ways of their idea of world domination. From a new world order underwater, or simply wanting to control natural resources, James Bond has successfully managed to conquer and defeat their plans, whilst of course, capturing the heart of the lead female.