You’ll know by now that the 25th Bond film is Daniel Craig’s final turn as the world’s most famous secret agent. But there are lots of other reasons No Time To Die is like no other Bond that’s been before...
We say goodbye to Daniel Craig
After 14 years and five films, No Time To Die sees Daniel Craig finally bowing out as Bond. He’s played 007 for the longest time period of any actor, and is the first Bond to have spanned three different decades. “Goodbye, Mr Bond'' just doesn't quite cut it. We left him at the end of Spectre walking into the sunset with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). This time, we find him five years into retirement, kicking back in Jamaica. But don’t expect two and a half hours of Daniel Craig drinking Martinis on a sun lounger….there’s soon an urgent mission he’s needed for.
First, *looks directly at camera*, there’s Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge on co-writing duties
Brought into the writing room, Bridge was enlisted by the No Time To Die crew to add some “little spices” (and no doubt some razor sharp one-liners) to the script. “You could tell that Phoebe was in there,” new cast member Ana de Armas, who plays kickass agent Paloma, said about reading the script. “There was that humour and spikiness so specific to her. My character feels like a real woman.”
Could Rami Malek be THE villain to end all Bond villains?
With his scarred face and steely stare, Rami Malek’s “supervillain” Safin is already giving us the creeps, and we’re not even sure what his evil plan is yet. Malek has said his experience playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody inspired him to make his Bond character a total original and he worked with dialogue coach William Conacher to come up with a completely new and exceedingly scary voice. We fully expect him to be one of the baddest Bond villains to date. He’s also the fifth actor to play a Bond baddie who has won an Oscar, following Christoph Waltz (Spectre), Javier Bardem (Skyfall), Benicio del Toro (Licence To Kill) and Christopher Walken (A View To A Kill). No wonder they’re so scary….
It has the biggest budget of any Bond to date
This being Bond, we already know to expect crazy car chases, epic stunts and tonnes of international adventure, but No Time To Die has pulled out all the bells and whistles. With a reported budget of $250million, this is the most expensive movie in the franchise’s history. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, Mania) has a famously obsessive eye for creating the perfect shot, while cinematographer Linus Sandgren scooped an Oscar in 2017 for his work on La La Land. We can’t promise Daniel Craig jazz-tap dancing his way around Los Angeles, but you can expect a visual feast. They did save a few pennies on the special effects, though. For a car chase in Matera, Italy, Coca-Cola was sprayed on the road to increase the grip. Don’t try it at home, folks.
