During the press tour for Casino Royale, it was revealed that the next film in Daniel Craig’s trilogy was going to be hashed out in January. Here it is, January, and right on schedule information is beginning to leak about what we can expect from Casino Royale II, whatever it may end up being called.
CommanderBond.net has translated an Italian interview with Giancarlo Giannini, who played the double-crossing Mathis in Casino Royale. Assuming CommanderBond’s translation is correct, Giannini tells Italian newspaper Il Giornale that he’ll be back in the next Bond film and that Mathis will become a triple agent, helping James Bond get at the mysterious evil organization behind Le Chiffre.
Meanwhile, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have shot down rumors that the next Bond film will be based on the Ian Fleming short story Risico. They wouldn’t spill too many beans – when asked if Eva Green’s offscreen Algerian boyfriend from Casino Royale would be a baddie they simply said “No comment” – but they did say that fans shouldn’t expect the next movie to just fall into previous James Bond status quo. That means no Miss Moneypenny and or Q. Says Robert Wade, ‘Some people think they should be there and some people know that they shouldn’t be there. With the way Casino Royale ends, you know there’s still unfinished business for Bond. He may say, “The name’s Bond, James Bond,” but there’s still a lot of stuff churning up inside him. So, if you’re going to explore that, and we’ve got this great actor to do that with, what you don’t want to do is suddenly clamp it down with all these familiar elements that keep your focus off him. He’s the great asset.’
Fans of Moneypenny may eventually see her in the rebooted series, but it looks like as long as the new direction continues, fans of Q are out of luck. ‘Q presents more problems. People have all got gadgets now. Other films have lots of gadgets as well… The idea of Q coming back, for the moment, it’s just not a high priority.’ Since the only Q I care about lives in the Chrysler Building and fights Michael Moriarty, good riddance.