Next Bond Definitely NOT “Risico”
Posted: Monday January 29th 2007 12:22am
Source: Assorted Sources
Author: Garth Franklin

In a new interview on The Trades, screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis (“Casino Royale”, “The World is Not Enough”) have talked about their work on the upcoming 22nd James Bond flick due in 2008.

In the process they shot down one long standing rumour – that Bond’s next adventure will be based on Ian Fleming’s short story, “Risico.” Wade flatly denied the rumor, adding “that’s not the case.”

The denial confirms a report from Dark Horizons earlier this year that the filmmakers had no plans to use the story for the next Bond script as it already had been used for the acclaimed and successful 1981 entry “For Your Eyes Only”.

Wade however could “not comment” on talk that that the Algerian boyfriend of “Casino Royale” love interest Vesper Lynd will be one of the villains.

What about the return of fan favourite characters like Q or Moneypenny? Wade says “With the way Casino Royale ends, you know there’s still unfinished business for Bond. He may say, ‘The name’s Bond, James Bond,’ but there’s still a lot of stuff churning up inside him. So, if you’re going to explore that, and we’ve got this great actor to do that with, what you don’t want to do is suddenly clamp it down with all these familiar elements that keep your focus off him. He’s the great asset.”

Purvis adds that Moneypenny would be the easier of the two to reintroduce though – “Q presents more problems. People have all got gadgets now. Other films have lots of gadgets as well. The idea of Q coming back, for the moment, it’s just not a high priority.”

Tonal wise things are expected to keep to ‘Royale’ standards for now – remaining gritty and realistic but still keeping some elements that will always be outside the realm of reality like “where you try to make a card game a major part of financing terrorism” says Purvis.

Timetable wise “The idea is for the movie to start shooting at the beginning of next year” says Wade. The script is being worked on right now, but “It’s not an easy thing to do, because the bar was raised with the last picture, so we have to raise our game” he adds.

For the full interview, be sure to click here.

Meanwhile, actor Giancarlo Giannini told Italian newspaper Il Giornale that his ‘Royale’ character of Mathis, last seen being led off by MI6 to either imprisonment or torture, will be back for the next film.

CommanderBond.Net, who translated the interview, says Mathis “will be using his double agent status to assist Bond in reaching the top of the mysterious organization that was behind Le Chiffre and Mr. White.”