Film News: James Bond 23 to be Release Next Year

After months of uncertainty and speculation, movie studio bosses have revealed that the 23rd James Bond movie will be released on 26th October 2012. For Bond aficionados, the news cannot come quickly enough as the cast and plot of the movie have yet to be confirmed.

Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli confirmed late last year that the sequel to 2008’s Quantum of Solace had been put on hiatus after MGM found itself in financial difficulty due to the effects of the 2007 banking crisis.

Film news sources had speculated that MGM’s rivals had been eyeing up the Bond franchise, as it had announced plans to sell off some of their theatrical assets to reduce the burden of debt on the company. The company had already partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment and 20th Century Fox to ease the costs of the 2006 reboot Casino Royale and 2008’s Quantum of Solace.

Earlier this year a new board of directors was formed and the company secured a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to handle the international distribution of over 4,000 movies through DVD and digital mediums.

Through the restructuring of the movie studio, Wilson and Broccoli announced in January that the film had finally been put back on track, and was currently in preproduction for release in late 2012. The pair also confirmed the return of Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench to the 23rd instalment, though the actors have been tight lipped about any information they know about the movie.

This isn’t the first time the Bond franchise had been away from the silver screen for a considerable amount of time. As a result of legal disputes between the franchise’s rights holders and MGM, six years passed between the release of Licence to Kill and GoldenEye.

In the time between the movies, Timothy Dalton had resigned from the role and handed the reigns over to Pierce Brosnan. Film reviewers were also left asking whether James Bond would be relevant in a post-Soviet era after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

GoldenEye received a slate of exceptionally praising film reviews, cementing the need for James Bond in the 1990’s, fending off competition from Tom Cruise’s cinematic adaptation of the 1960’s spy series Mission: Impossible and the James Bourne franchises.

MGM has yet to release any film trailers or information regarding the film’s release. Daniel Craig will also be starring in the American adaptation of the hit movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo later on this year.