A major rumor has surfaced online about the mysterious nature of Bond 25, as the film may be titled Shatterhand and adapted from one of the more recently published books following the adventures of 007.
With previous uncertainty as to whether or not Daniel Craig would return for his fifth outing as the famous British super spy, it appears that the actor will indeed be returning for what may be his final appearance as James Bond. With the series officially at the quarter mark to one hundred live-action films, we know Bond 25 will be released in November of 2019 and that French filmmaker Yann Demange is the frontrunner to direct. Little to no plot details are known to this point, but a potential leak online may have enlightened us to where the next step in the franchise is headed.
According to a rumor reported by European tabloid site Mirror, the 25th Bond flick will be titled Shatterhand and will be based upon elements of the 2001 Bond novel Never Dream of Dying by Raymond Benson. If based heavily on that story, Bond will go up against a blind super villain leading an evil French organization called the Union, as he investigates a police raid gone deadly wrong. The femme fetale Bond girl in the film would be Tylyn Migonne, an actress and seductress with ties to the visually-impaired antagonist.
In addition, Mirror reports that producers of the film are scouting locations in Croatia, France, and Japan for major action sequences for Shatterhand. Benson had previously adapted three of the Pierce Brosnan-led Bond movies into novelizations, but this would be the first time that the movies would draw from his original stories and not the other way around. Beyond that adaptation, the script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade also features elements of 1960s Bond films like the Sean Connery-led You Only Live Twice and the one-off George Lazenby entry On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
There is no confirmation of this rumor in any manner, and given that Mirror is a tabloid-based publication, everything here should be taken with a major grain of salt. The article also mentions that Christoph Waltz's head of Spectre Ernst Blofeld and Dave Bautista's Mr. Hinx could potentially return, providing additional carryover and connective tissue from the previous four Daniel Craig films that have defined his run as 007. Considering that Bautista was kicked out of a fast-moving train during Spectre, we'll see how likely his return is - but given that Waltz is still alive and imprisoned by the end of the film, Blofeld could play a Hannibal Lecter-style role in helping Bond solve the mystery of Shattterhand.
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Source: Mirror