With now a year’s wait from its original release, Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing may well be the most teased Bond film of all time as we’ve still got at least six months of interview quotes and hints to come ahead of the film’s opening.
This week, actor Rami Malek got a profile in GQ with the actor and others commenting on his role as the villain Safin in the feature. The film’s director Cary Fukunaga says the baddie will be “bigger” than Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld from “Spectre”. Fukunaga says:
“Once we got into Christoph Waltz/Blofeld territory, you can’t go small again. We had to think bigger. It’s tricky because you don’t want to make a cliché supervillain, but you have to make someone that’s threatening not only to Bond and the people he loves but to the world at large.”
There’s long been a rumor Safin is actually a new take on Dr. Julius No, Joseph Wiseman’s iconic villain from the very first Bond film in 1962. Malek wouldn’t comment much on the speculation saying: “That’s interesting. I’m not going to bite on that, but I do think it’s interesting. They’ll just have to wait and see.”
The delays for the film are costing it. Variety has done a breakdown on the costs thus far with the movie having already spent $66 million in marketing costs and boasting a $301 million net production budget. Added to that Craig and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson all have generous backend and profit participation deals, and the studio has an additional $1 million in interest charges per month, it’s not a huge surprise MGM put out feelers for a potential streaming sale or exclusive licensing deal.
Apparently no formal offer was even drafted let alone made, especially as MGM was hoping for between $600 million to $850 million and streamers indicated that they wouldn’t top $400 million. MGM is also dealing with a costly but robust theatrical film slate coming up including new efforts from Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott, George Miller, Joe Wright and Kenya Barris.
“No Time to Die” is currently on track for a theatrical release in April next year.
