Bond 24

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http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=42910

 

Welcome back, Spectre. We've been expecting you. Today, at a grand unveiling at the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios, director Sam Mendes revealed the title of the 24th James Bond film - and the follow-up to the franchise's first billion-dollar grosser, Skyfall - will be SPECTRE. You can check out an impressive motion poster over on Facebook.

 

And, as Mendes intimated, Bond fans will know what that means. SPECTRE is, of course, the terrorist organisation that was a thorn in Bond's side throughout most of the early 007 films. It stands for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge And Extortion, and is not to be trifled with.

 

Of late, SPECTRE has not had a presence in the Bond universe thanks to a long-running copyright battle between MGM and the estate of Kevin McClory, the producer of Thunderball and the unofficial Connery Bond, Never Say Never Again. That, however, was resolved in 2013, paving the way for SPECTRE to return to the Bond movies - and with it, presumably, its leader, the iconic Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

 

Not so, at least according to today's announcement, in which Christoph Waltz was confirmed as a cast member. His involvement has been rumoured for a couple of weeks, and it's been presumed that he will play Blofeld. Yet his character is called Oberhauser, according to the official press release. So nothing to see here. No Blofeld, move along.

 

But, that bait-and-switch has happened quite a bit in recent times - there's the John Harrison/Khan situation in Star Trek Into Darkness, the constant denials that Marion Cotillard was playing Talia Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, and of course the smokescreen that enveloped Naomie Harris inSkyfall, where her character Eve was revealed at the last minute as the new Miss Moneypenny.

 

So, for the next year or so, Waltz and everyone involved with SPECTRE will have to field endless "You're Blofeld really, aren't you?" questions. But while it would make sense to bring Blofeld back, and while Waltz would be a great choice to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray and Telly Savalas, perhaps Mendes and EON, the Bond producers, are building up to his reintroduction down the line. All will be revealed next October – and certainly the official synopsis hints at intrigue to be uncovered.