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Blast from the past for James Bond as new movie title is revealed

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The title of the next James Bond film was revealed this morning in a press event which was live streamed to the internet.

SPECTRE will begin filming on Monday at Pinewood Studios with a UK release date of October 23 2015 pencilled in and no doubt a tight shooting schedule.

The name SPECTRE is an acronym for SPecial Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.

The title is a throwback to the organisation and characters which were co-created by Kevin McClory alongside Ian Fleming which was the bane of Sean Connery’s Bond for the majority of his films in the 60s.

The James Bond producers haven’t had the right to use SPECTRE or related characters since Roger Moore’s tenure as Bond in the 1970s and only recently bought back the rights on November 15 2013.

This is partly the reason why, when Bond went up against a shadowy organisation who were not above using terrorism to further their aims in 2006’s Casino Royale, it was eventually announced that QUANTUM would be that organisation.

QUANTUM certainly sounds a lot more modern than SPECTRE but it was somewhat disappointing to find no mention of QUANTUM in 2012’s Skyfall, especially after the muddled ending to Quantum of Solace.

The end of Skyfall showed M giving Bond a new mission, however, and there’s certainly room for Bond to find that the Quantum and SPECTRE are one and the same organisation, with the possible re-emergence of a ghost from his past prompting an investigation by Bond.

In this regard, Spectre is an interesting title with multiple connotations and a very intriguing cast who will join Daniel Craig in his fourth outing as James Bond.

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) will be taking a villainous role, playing a character called ‘Oberhauser’.

Although having the same surname as Hannes Oberhauser, the ski instructor referred to as a ‘second father’ to Bond after his parents’ death in a climbing accident but mysteriously disappeared at some point in Bond’s youth, it’s been heavily rumoured that Waltz will in fact be playing iconic villain Ernst Stavro Blofelt who was ‘Number One’ in SPECTRE.

Dave Bautista, who recently appeared as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, will play a villainous henchman called Mr Hinx and his physical presence, reminiscent of Goldfinger’s Oddjob or From Russia With Love’s Red Shaw, continues the theme that is building of a return to the 60s Bond themes which have been heavily parodied over the years, most notably by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers series of films.

The two Bond girls were also announced, with Lea Seydoux, of Blue is Not the Only Colour and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. She will be joined by Monica Bellucci who had roles in The Matrix Reloaded and Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm.

Traditionally, with two Bond girls, one of them usually turns out to be treacherous, with Bond ending up with the other one. It will be interesting trying to work out which is which.

We will also see a role for Andrew Scott as a character called Denbigh. Scott played a superbly unhinged Moriarty in the recent Sherlock series for BBC TV opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, himself not unfamiliar with surprisingly named roles in long running film series.

Of course, we will see Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Rory Kinnear and Ben Whishaw return to the series as Moneypenny, M, Tanner, and Q respectively.

And Bond wouldn’t be Bond without an Aston Martin, and we’ll see the DB10 in service as the latest vehicle, with possibly a greater role for Q to introduce more gadgets for Bond to use.