On Craig's List

Ahead of the release of Skyfall, I plunged myself into total sensory deprivation about the 50th anniversary edition so as to come to it totally fresh.  I caught the odd scene from promo trailers but not one that would materially affect my experience as when at the cinema, I closed my eyes, put my fingers in my ears and hummed at a low-level.  This paid off as I really enjoyed all the plot twists and maybe was just as well because the film doesn't fare so well on a second viewing (too much like Jack Bauer in 24 rather than Bond and once the surprises are known, it's a fairly thin exercise).

However, I have lapped up the news for Bond 24, namely that SPECTRE (the SPecial Executive for Crime, Terror, Revenge and Extortion) will return after Kevin McClory's estate finally relented.  So jubilant are the Bond producers that they have reacquired the rights that they have named Bond 24 after the organisation.  It's going to be one hell of a job namechecking that in the opening credits song.

Daniel Craig will return for what is surely his last appearance as James Bond (so many years of him as 007 we have been denied) and he has a pretty heavyweight cast.  In addition to stalwarts, Monica Belluci and Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes) join, probably as Bond allies.  I've been told that Christoph Waltz plays a conflicted character.  It seems that he starts out as a ski instructor to a young Bond but later becomes Blofeld - some jump from a teacher on the slopes to a criminal megalomaniac - but he will be brilliant, as always.  I'm salivating at the release next year.  Technically. this is the biennial cinematic release year but now we get the name an cast release instead - I guess that's modern film-making for you.