The recently announced two-month delay to the next James Bond movie is due to extensive script changes, it has been reported.
According to the Playlist, Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z Burns has been hired to rewrite the screenplay for Daniel Craig’s fifth – and supposedly final – outing as 007. Burns, with script credits on the Steven Soderbergh films Contagion, Side Effects and The Laundromat, as well as writing and directing CIA torture drama The Report, is reportedly currently at work on the film. The delay was due to his preparing The Report for its premiere at the recently concluded Sundance film festival, where it was purchased by Amazon for $14m in a big-money deal.
Burns’s involvement is the latest twist for a project that has been hit by a series of problems. Beasts of No Nation director Cary Fukunaga was taken on in September 2018 to replace Danny Boyle, who unexpectedly dropped out in August after “creative differences” with the producers and 007 star Daniel Craig. Veteran Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade returned to the project to “salvage” it, while Paul Haggis, a credited scriptwriter on Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, is also reported to have worked on a draft.
Bond 25 was originally scheduled for release in autumn 2019 but was pushed back to February 2020. Its release date is now 8 April 2020.
