Without real assurance that Bond 22 won’t slide back to the old style of one-liners and joke setpieces (or limp policital posturing, with Paul Haggis providing the polish) I’m not sure why I care that the production team is going to Panama. Dark Horizons is reporting that Bond fansite MI6 is reporting that the production team has been down in Central America’s finest canal country to scout locations that could double for South American shores.

The flick’s planned start date is December 10, though MI6 claims that the chosen locale in this hemisphere’s flyover continent will receive an influx of crewmembers starting later this month, with preliminary shooting to start as early as November.

Romors that Bond will fight a crack terrorist team while swinging from a harness and chugging Jack Daniels have already been put to rest, but there’s still a lot of buzz about the planned climactic sequence where Bond and his support team will teach the audience to play snooker.