Sometimes big film news stories are buried in the details of articles that initially don’t get much notice. Bleeding Cool has done a bit of investigating into such a story since a story appeared on Blic Online about a Serbian cellist named Jelena Mihailovic has been picked to contribute to the score to Bond 23 (although I think the article is a bit off in which it figures she is doing the title song — that’s almost always reserved for pop music). What the more interesting bit is that the article gives the title of the film: Carte Blanche, which of course means having unconditional power, something James Bond often gets yelled at by M for assuming he has it.
Bleeding Cool did more digging to find out that Carte Blanche is the name of an Bond novel that was published in May, and Wikipedia offers the following plot summary:
[Bond] starts his assignment on the outskirts of Novi Sad in Serbia where an Irish sapper-turned-enforcer named Niall Dunne is planning to derail a train carrying three hundred kilograms of methyl isocyanate, dumping it into the Danube. Bond is able to prevent the catastrophe by derailing the train himself at a much safer place along the line. He is unable to detain Dunne, who kills Bond’s Serbian contacts in the course of his escape.
I haven’t read Carte Blanche, but I remember it caused a bit of a stir upon its release because it solidly put the James Bond character in 2011, which of course would work well for the contemporary setting of the Daniel Craig films.
Is it true? I’m not sure if I buy it. First of all, back in the late 1980s the 16th Bond film underwent a title change during production (from Licence Revoked to Licence to Kill) reportedly because Americans thought it would be about Bond losing his driver’s license (no, I am not making that up). I think even less Americans out there know what Carte Blanche means, especially after people complained that the title Quantum of Solace was too confusing. Plus, while the Bond films have a history of using the titles of the Bond novels, frequently the movies have had very little to do with the novels — so even if the title is Carte Blanche it might have a totally different plot.
Whatever Bond 23 ends up being called, it will be directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition). The script is by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who have written the past four Bond films, and are joined by John Logan (Any Given Sunday, Gladiator) this time around. Daniel Craig will, of course, return as Bond, Naomie Harris will debut as Moneypenny, and Javier Bardem will play the film’s villain. Also in the cast is Rhys Ifans and Ralph Fiennes, and we can probably expect Judi Dench to return as M. It is believed that part of the film will be set in South Africa, a first for Bond. The film is set for a worldwide release on November 9, 2012. As usual, the UK and Ireland will be getting the movie two weeks earlier on October 26.
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