It's official! Bond 25 with Daniel Craig, Danny Boyle to start shooting this year

The film will be released in November 2019.

After so much back and forth as to whether Daniel Craig will or won’t return for the next James Bond movie, the Hollywood gatekeepers of 007 officially announced some news on the untitled Bond 25.

Craig will indeed star in the follow-up to Spectre under the direction of Steve Jobs helmer Danny Boyle — and filming will begin this Dec. 3. Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge wrote the original screenplay for Bond 25, which will mark Craig’s fifth time as agent 007 after Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre.

The news comes after EON Productions and MGM reached a deal with Universal Pictures to release the film worldwide. MGM will handle a U.S release on Nov. 8, 2019 through its new joint venture with Annapurna Pictures, and Universal will handle international distribution. As is traditional with Bond films, Bond 25 will get an early U.K. release on Oct. 25, 2019.

“We are delighted to announce that the exceptionally talented Danny Boyle will be directing Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as James Bond in the 25th installment of the franchise,” Bond franchise producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said in a statement. “We will begin shooting Bond 25 at Pinewood Studios in December with our partners at MGM and thrilled that Universal Pictures will be our international distributor.”

“It has been 16 years since Die Another Day was distributed by MGM and it’s incredibly gratifying to be releasing this film alongside the powerhouse team at Universal,” MGM’s President of Motion Picture Group Jonathan Glickman added.

Last time we saw Craig’s 007 in Spectre, he was facing off against an iconic villain of the franchise, Blofeld, by way of Christoph Waltz. Léa Seydoux played “Bond Girl” Madeleine, while Ralph Fiennes played the new M, Ben Whishaw played Q, and Naomie Harris played Moneypenny.

Boyle succeeds Sam Mendes, who directed both Skyfall and Spectre but expressed his fatigue in various interviews.

“I said no to the last one and then ended up doing it, and was royally pilloried by all my friends,” he had said prior to the release of Spectre. “I think five years for the two movies — it feels like one big experience. It was a fantastic, life-changing thing. But I don’t think I could go down that road again. It’s more a lifestyle choice than a job. You do have to put everything else on hold.”

Craig, too, has been off and on about whether to do more Bond. “When asked 20 feet from the end of the marathon, ‘Will you do another marathon?’ the answer is simple. It’s like, ‘No, I won’t,’” he said in October 2016. Though he added, “There is no other job like it… if I were to stop doing it, I would miss it terribly.”

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