Several cast members, including James Bond himself Daniel Craig, have asserted thatNo Time to Diewill do things a little differently this 25th time around. Well, it sounds like bucking the trend will be the aim of the game from the movie’s very first frame, with the recent revelation thatNo Time to Diewill do something literally no other James Bond movie has done before, not feature Bond at all.
Instead, the movie will open with a flashback toLéa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swannand her childhood run-in with Rami Malek’s masked villain, Safin, who murders her mother and chases her through the family home. The scene will feature Malek wearing the “Japanese Noh mask” that we have already seen in promotional material forNo Time to Die, with the mask bringing to mind a certain clown, according to director Cary Joji Fukunaga.
“Some clown chasing a child around the house. Yeah, it’s like I brought back It in the first five minutes of Bond.”
Usually,James Bond moviesopen with 007 trifling with a middle man that leads into the mission that he will undertake for the rest of the movie.No Time to Dieopening with an almost slasher-like scene featuring a young Madeleine Swann should provide the movie with an emotional foundation to build upon, as well as tie Malek’s villain to both Swann and Bond. This time, it sounds like things are going to be very personal. The opening scene has been described as “slow-paced” and “visually arresting” suggesting a very different Bond experience to what audiences are used to.
The filmmaker also addressed the movie’s most recent delay saying “I think they made a very smart decision to be one of the first to say out loud, ‘This is a big thing. We’removing the film,’ because a lot of people were in denial. Some still are.”
The director is not the only one to back the decision, withDaniel Craig having reasonedthat all involved just want the theater environment to be safe and sound whenNo Time to Dieis finally released. “We just want people to go and see this movie in the right way, the safe way,” he said. “You know, cinemas all around the world are closed at the moment and we want to release the movie at the same time all around the world, this isn’t the right time.”
No Time to Diepicks up five years after the events of 2015’sSpectreand the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, with James Bond having now left active service. He is approached by Felix Leiter, his friend, and a CIA officer, who enlists his help in the search for Valdo Obruchev, a missing scientist. When it becomes apparent that Obruchev was abducted, Bond must confront a danger the likes of which the world has never seen before.
The movie is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, and Ralph Fiennes reprise their roles from previous films, with Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, and Rami Malek joining the main cast.
Following several delays,No Time to Diewill now open in theaters on April 2nd, 2021. This comes to us courtesy ofThe Wall Street Journal.
