A pair of rumors surrounding Sam Mendes’ untitled James Bond 23 have surfaced as we inch closer to the anticipated October start date and thus far casting being limited to the return of Daniel Craig as Bond, Judi Dench as M and Naomie Harris, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes rumored to have roles in the film. Harris is said to have the Moneypenny role with Bardem and Fiennes playing the film’s two villains, but none of the three have been confirmed as I expect MGM and EON are planning one big massive press release to announce the start of production. Yet, the rumors persist.
The latest comes from What Culture who attended a BAFTA Screewriters lecture at which Bond 23 screenwriter John Logan was reminded by an audience member of a quote he apparently gave ten years ago saying, “Bond should always fight Blofeld.” Blofeld, of course, being short for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond’s greatest nemesis who first appeared in From Russia with Love until he was last played by Max von Sydow in Never Say Never Again twenty years later.
The audience member was obviously trying to get some kind of hint as to whether Logan had written Blofeld in as the villain for this twenty-third Bond adventure to which the site reports Logan “gave a wry smile and said, ‘Bond should always fight Blofeld.'” Any chance you see either Bardem or Fiennes taking up the Blofeld reins?
Today’s other rumor comes courtesy of Swedish newspaper Expressen (via Bleeding Cool) who is reporting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star, Noomi Rapace’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Ola Rapace, has been forced to drop out of ‘Star jumping’ the Stockholm International Horse Show due toa new project that will take all his time and focus.
Sources have told Expressen the role is for the new Bond film, but were unable to get confirmation from Rapace’s agent or MGM, both replying with no comment.
Rapace has yet to be featured in a major American film, the picture you see of him above is him training to play Swedish boxer Bosse Hogberg in an as-yet untitled film about the boxer to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) in which he’ll star opposite his ex-wife.
And that’s where we stand, several batches of rumor and speculation including a previous rumor I gave no stock to saying the film would be based on Jefferey Deaver’s latest Bond novel “[amazon asin=”1451620691″ text=”Carte Blanche”],” which sounds entirely ridiculous to me, but that’s the mill for you.
Bond 23 is expected to begin filming in October in South Africa and India for a November 9, 2012 release. For my previous coverage on the film click here.
