Daniel Craig’s final turn as 007 — No Time To Die — has suffered more setbacks than Mr James Bond himself, but just like the incredibly suave agent, the film has been able to bounce back every time.
After a frustrating 18 months of setbacks due to the ongoing pandemic, No Time To Die is scheduled to be released in Australia on November 11 and so help us God, COVID better not get in the way again because the most recent trailer for the film has us more excited than ever.
No Time to Die follows directly from the end of Spectre, after Bond, the MI5 spy, decided to leave the spy game to live it up in Jamaica. However, his peace is fairly short-lived thanks to his friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) from the CIA seeking him out to ask for help.
According to the film’s official synopsis, “The mission to rescue kidnapped scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.”
That mysterious villain, of course, is none other than Oscar-winner Rami Malek who plays Safin — a role he previously told The Mirror, he had to think twice before accepting.
“It’s a great character and I’m very excited,” he told the outlet, however, explained that he wanted assurance from director Cary Fukunga that the villain would not be a “religious fundamentalist”.
“I said, ‘We cannot identify him with any act of terrorism reflecting an ideology or a religion. That’s not something I would entertain, so if that is why I am your choice then you can count me out’.
“But that was clearly not his vision. So he’s a very different kind of terrorist.”
In addition to Craig, Wright, Dencik and Malek, Ralph Fiennes (M), Naomie Harris (Moneypenny), Ben Whishaw (Q) and Lea Seydoux (Madeleine Swann) also star.
Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge served as one of the writers on the film — and was reportedly paid $2 million USD for her contributions.
While many film studios have made the decision to release tentpoles simultaneously on streaming platforms and in theatres where possible — a move that resulted in the lawsuit Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson has filed against the Walt Disney Company — Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have remained committed to a theatrical release.
No Time to Die was one of the first films affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the film first being pushed from its originally planned release date of April 2020 to November that year before being moved once again to April 2021. The virus then caused the action spy thriller to be slated for an October 2021 release and but will now (hopefully) be in cinemas on November 11.
So I guess the old saying is true, the 657th time is the charm.
Catch the trailer below.
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