James Bond is back. And better still, he’s back as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson always intended: on the big screen.
James Bond is back. And better still, he’s back as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson always intended: on the big screen. At the world premiere of “No Time to Die” at London’s 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’s $8.45 billion acquisition of Bond studio MGM is going to play out, didn’t 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: “The waiting has been terrible, but we finally got here.” 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 “for ensuring this film had a cinema release.” “We’re thrilled to be sharing the 25th Bond film the way it was intended to be shown, and shot — on the big screen,” echoed director Cary Joji Fukunaga, before introducing 11 members of the cast, including Craig, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek.
