A Lighter Tone

By MI6 Staff

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In an interview focused on their upcoming Broadway production of Harold Pinter's play 'Betrayal', Daniel Craig and his wife Rachel Weisz opened up to Vulture about working together. And, inevitably, the article rounds out with some brief talk about his fourth James Bond outing ('Bond 24') due out in 2015.

After 'Betrayal' wraps its 14 week run on Broadway, Craig confirmed he will shift in to 007 duty, pegging the earliest start of his pre-production on Bond 24 around March 2014 (assuming a break inbetween). Given the confirmed release date, filming is not expected to commence until around October next year.

Before talking about Bond 24, Craig says that the central plot of M dying in 'Skyfall' was a bit of a 'downer' but lifted by a late "humour pass" on the script by John Logan - who will pen the next two 007 outings for which Craig is contracted. The article reveals that additional humour was added during filming: "The shot where Bond leaps atop a speeding train in pursuit of a killer and straightens his cuffs: That came to Craig practically in mid-flight.

“He’s really fucking hurt himself jumping on top of a train,” he says, “and he just wants to straighten himself up. That’s what it’s about: poise. To be more concerned about the way you look at the moment of crisis. The weirder the place it comes from the better it is.”

Craig had the crew reset the train scene, which took an hour, so they could do the additional take. It became an iconic moment in the film.

On the subject of Bond 24, now that Bond's character has effectively been 'reborn', Vulture pondered that Craig's interpretation would now be 'ready to take on the trappings and suits of 007 with less chafing'.

“Hopefully we’ll reclaim some of the old irony,” he says, “and make sure it doesn’t become pastiche. I can’t do shtick, I’m not very good at it. Unless it kind of suddenly makes sense. Does that make sense? I sometimes wish I hammed it up more, but I just can’t do it very well, so I don’t do it.”

Briefing
SPECTRE (2015) is the new James Bond film and the 24th in the series. It will be the fourth outing for Daniel Craig as 007, and the second film to be directed by Sam Mendes from a screenplay by John Logan, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade. The new MI6 team of Ralph Fiennes (M), Naomie Harris (Moneypenny), Rory Kinnear (Tanner) and Ben Whishaw (Q) are all reprising their roles. The cast will include Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott and Christoph Waltz. Production commences on December 8th 2014, with location work as early as 5th January 2015 in Austria. The film will also shoot on location in: Erfoud and Tangier, Morocco; Rome, Italy and Mexico City, Mexico. SPECTRE is scheduled for release on 7th November 2015.