James Bond is back. And better still, he’s back as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson always intended: on the big screen.<\/b>
\nJames Bond is back. And better still, he\u2019s back as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson always intended: on the big screen. At the world premiere of \u201cNo Time to Die\u201d at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, the uncertainty of where the franchise is headed after 15 years led by Daniel Craig, or even the crucial details of how Amazon\u2019s $8.45 billion acquisition of Bond studio MGM is going to play out, didn\u2019t seem to matter very much at all. Fifteen months after its original April 2020 release date, surrounded by all the Union Jacks, brass bands and Royal Armed Forces soldiers one might expect at a Bond movie world premiere in Britain, Wilson said it best on the red carpet: \u201cThe waiting has been terrible, but we finally got here.\u201d Indeed, even through a pandemic that brought the exhibition sector to its knees, the custodians of Bond did not break, instead digging their heels in and committing to a theatrical release. On stage, Wilson gave a heartfelt thanks to studio partners MGM and Universal \u201cfor ensuring this film had a cinema release.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to be sharing the 25th Bond film the way it was intended to be shown, and shot \u2014 on the big screen,\u201d echoed director Cary Joji Fukunaga, before introducing 11 members of the cast, including Craig, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek. Craig, in a dazzling velvet pink blazer, kept his final valediction as Bond\u2019s caretaker \u2014 the man who helped to humanize the hard-edged spy \u2014 succinct: \u201cLook at where we are. Look at this, look at us!\u201d he remarked, later thanking Wilson and Broccoli and dedicating the film to the U.K.\u2019s frontline health workers. Inside the 150-year-old auditorium,4,000 people \u2014 a portion of them key workers \u2014 gathered amid members of the royal family. Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, were seated in the royal box alongside his father and stepmother: Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles. (Judging by the perpetual grin on Prince William\u2019s face as he joked with Craig and other stars at a royal presentation line before the premiere, it\u2019s evidently one of the major perks of the job.) While the seating inside the theater felt, occasionally, uncomfortably snug for a movie with a 163-minute runtime, strict COVID protocols were in place for everyone in attendance, and entry had been permitted only with proof of a negative lateral flow test or PCR test taken within 48 hours. In a note to attendees sent earlier in the week, Eon Productions, MGM and Universal had said, \u201cWe recognized that for some of you, this will be the first public event that you may have attended for more than a year, but please be assured that we have worked closely with the Royal Albert Hall and our suppliers, and together have taken a number of measures to ensure a safe and enjoyable evening.\u201d With such assurances in mind, few people bothered to wear masks throughout the screening and dug heartily into the \u201cJames Bond Dry Martini\u201d popcorn placed atop every seat. The long-anticipated feature \u2014 from its dizzying opening sequence through to one delicious, action-packed set piece after another \u2014 will no doubt polarize fans, with a bombastic ending that will ensure the conversation around James Bond\u2019s future stampedes straight through into 2022, when Broccoli has said the Eon team will begin to discuss Craig\u2019s successor. And, indeed, as a cheeky title card that quickly flashed post credits promised: \u201cJames Bond Will Return.\u201d Certainly, not as a woman, as Broccoli made perfectly clear this week, but in a new world where the brand\u2019s studio home is owned by a Silicon Valley company and where the identity of its next warden will be more closely scrutinized than ever before in Bond\u2019s 58-year history.<\/p>\n