007 schedule shaken up

2004-10-01 14:23

Los Angeles - Suave superspy James Bond's next mission has been delayed as MGM studios searches for a new actor to play 007 and for a director to oversee his 21st screen outing.

The announcement by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) came less than a week after a deal to sell the Hollywood studio to a group led by Japan's Sony Corp was sealed amid a pledge that Bond business would continue.

The new film in the 42-year-old franchise had been due for release in November next year, but so far the picture has no director and no star.

Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson are now wrangling over whether to release the new movie in the middle of 2006 or in November, Bond's traditional release month, studio officials said.

Hunt is still on

They conceded that it would be near impossible to start production on the film next January in the absence of a director.

In addition, a hunt is still on for an actor to incarnate the agent who likes his Martinis shaken and not stirred after the 51-year-old Irishman Pierce Brosnan announced his retirement from the spy world.

British star Ewan McGregor, Australians Eric Bana and Hugh Jackman and Britons Clive Owen, Jude Law and Orlando Bloom have all been tipped as the next spy legend, but no actor has yet been offered the prized job.

The delay in production also followed last week's confirmation that a consortium led by Sony Corp of America would buy the 80-year-old MGM studio, which has released the Bond films since 1962, for nearly $5bn.

The Bond franchise, created by the late Cubby Broccoli, remains MGM's biggest moneymaker, generating around $3.8bn in box office receipts and millions more in revenues from home video and broadcast rights.

The collection of existing Bond movies are among the prized items in MGM's coveted library of 4 100 films, the jewel in the crown of the MGM lion.

- AFP