It’s been two years since the announcement that the next James Bond movie would be held up because of MGM’s filing for bankruptcy protection. Now the movie has a title (Skyfall), a director (Sam Mendes), and a release date (November 9), but like many others who’ve been out of work for a while, the franchise only got bigger while it was sitting on the couch waiting for the phone to ring. So it’s going to be the first Bond movie released to IMAX, a format that might have been designed specifically to do justice to Daniel Craig’s pectorals, which seem to be in 3D even when viewed on a cell phone. However, unlike portions of the recent Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the Bond film is not being shot on IMAX film, just digitally blown up to size and enhanced. The announcement came with an orgy of mutual air-kissing from representatives of MGM (“It is fitting that with Skyfall marking the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond franchise, we celebrate in epic style, and what could be more larger-than-life than IMAX joining the festivities.”) and IMAX Filmed Entertainment (“It is an honor and privilege to be a part of this legendary franchise, whose iconic characters and electrifying action will not only be amplified in the IMAX format.”)
Craig, who kept in fighting trim by appearing in every third movie released during the holidays, will be returning to the role of Bond, who this time has to save the world from Javier Bardem. The cast also includes Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, the always adorable Ben Whishaw, who’s making his first bow as the gadget-master Q, and Judi Dench as Bond’s boss, M. Details of the script are being kept under tight wraps, but it’s known that “Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her,” possibly because he finds out that she was in The Chronicles Of Riddick.