Christopher Nolan was supposed to save cinemas with “Tenet” this summer, but lukewarm reviews and an ongoing box office-challenging pandemic may still want a word on that final verdict. But that said, if Nolan can’t do it, maybe filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga can with the upcoming 007 film, “No Time To Die.”
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While summer movies took a lot of narrative hits this year from the various release date shuffles (see Nolan’s movie), MGM might have fared best by being one of the first major studios to seemingly recognize the dangers of the pandemic and act accordingly. “No Time To Die” was originally scheduled or April of this year, but right in the early stages of the COVID-19 drama, MGM didn’t mess around and moved the film eight months to November.
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Now, “No Time To Die” is sitting pretty and could be one of the first major films of the fall to not suffer from a closed or diminished American box office if all goes well (fingers crossed). In this final 007 adventure for star Daniel Craig, his fifth time in the role, Bond is retired, but old friends and old ghosts pull him back into the fold much like they are always want to do. Here’s the official synopsis:
In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
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Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, this 25th Bond film is written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, and Fukunaga and “Fleabag” creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The cast includes many familiar faces beyond Craig, Léa Seydoux and Christoph Waltz from “Spectre,” Bond franchise actors, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Rory Kinnear and Ralph Fiennes as “M,” but also newcomers Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, and Billy Magnussen.
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Will Bond save cinemas or salvage 2020 at the box office? It’s simply too early to tell, but with a November 12 release date in the U.K. and November 20 in the U.S., MGM is hoping that’s enough time for cinemas to be fully operational and COVID-19 hopefully somewhere close to being contained. Watch the new trailer below.
