First off is a bit from Blic, a Serbian online newspaper which ran a story recently about cellist Jelena Mihailovic being invited to write the opening score for the next Bond film after a concert attended by the producers and director Sam Mendes(Jarhead
). That's interesting enough news right there, but this is the key bit we're concerned with..."the producers and the director of the next Bond film were in the audience, who were staggered by what they had heard and on the spot offered Jelena a chance to write the opening score for the new James Bond film, entitled Carte Blanche."
That seems pretty straight forward, right? It's entitled Carte Blanche. Period. Well, it's not so simple. Seeing as how this is a Serbian rag, there's always the risk of translation errors. They could've meant she had "carte blanche" to do whatever she wants with the score. Although I seriously doubt that to be the case since this is James Bond we're talking about and they wouldn't let anybody stray too far from the theme we all recognize. I'm inclined to think the title was revealed inadvertently and that it's legit. But there's more evidence regardless.
Guess what the title of the latest James Bond novel is? Yeah, it's Carte Blanche
. Written by Jeffery Deaver, the story sounds almost tailor made for the big screen as it's basically a reboot of the character's backstory, placing him firmly in the 21st century. Bond was now born in the late 70s and a veteran of the Afghanistan war. Seriously. The plot of the novel also jibes well with a story from last week revealing that the film would feature a huge action sequence involving a train...."[Bond] starts his assignment on the outskirts of Novi Sad in Serbia where an Irish sapper-turned-enforcer named Niall Dunne is planning to derail a train carrying three hundred kilograms of methyl isocyanate, dumping it into the Danube. Bond is able to prevent the catastrophe by derailing the train himself at a much safer place along the line. He is unable to detain Dunne, who kills Bond’s Serbian contacts in the course of his escape."
Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner! Nothing is confirmed yet, but the film is due out in just over a year so chances are we'll find out the truth in a matter of days. As it stands right now, the film will star the returning Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Javier Bardem is the villain, Ralph Fiennes is some complex dude, and Naomie Harris is in as well. Is it impossible to think that maybe Deaver had a hand in crafting the screenplay alongside writer Patrick Marber(Closer
)? I don't think so.
