Hacked Sony emails show next Bond film could be most expensive film of all time at US$300m
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 14 December, 2014, 8:51pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 14 December, 2014, 8:56pm
Bond actor Daniel Craig (left) and director Sam Mendes.
Early villains have emerged in the next James Bond film SPECTRE: hackers who stole a version of the screenplay as part of a devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
SPECTRE, starring Daniel Craig as 007, is set for release on November 6, next year. Filming began this month after producer Barbara Broccoli and director Sam Mendes unveiled the title, cast and new car, but little about the plot.
The leaked emails also showed that the film could cost US$300m, making it one of the most expensive films of all time, according to senior executives at Sony. Messages sent last month to Broccoli from Jonathan Glickman, the president of MGM studios, show that MGM and Sony Pictures, which will co-finance and distribute the film, were attempting to scale back a budget that then stood at "the mid-US$300m".
In an exchange that copied in Sony co-chair Amy Pascal, Glickman requests that cuts be made by scaling back action sequences.
Broccoli, however, refused to trim the number of carriages to be used in a train chase, and insisted certain scenes be shot in Rome rather than London, despite inflated costs. In a separate message to Glickman, Pascal expresses her anxiety, writing: "It's insane and you know with no script this movie is gonna go over budget."
Reuters, The Guardian
