Danny Boyle will not be directing the 25th James Bond movie, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson announced through a tweet on Tuesday. Boyle was attached as the co-writer and director of the untitled film, known as “Bond 25”, since May. The movie will see Daniel Craig playing the British secret service agent for possibly the last time.
Production on the movie is supposed to start in December in England. The scheduled release date for the United Kingdom is October 25, 2019, and November 8, 2019, for the United States of America. Boyle was supposed to have written the film along with frequent collaborator John Hodge, whose credits include Boyle’s Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and The Beach (2000).
The last Bond film, Spectre, was released in 2015.
Franchise regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade had written the script for Bond 25, but it was allegedly set aside after Boyle and Hodge got attached to the project, The Guardian reported. “In July, a leaked call sheet suggested that the story would include a ‘charismatic, powerful, innovative, cosmopolitan, bright, cold and vindictive’ Russian villain’,” the newspaper added.
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