As previously reported earlier in the week, 'Bond 25' is getting into serious bother with even those cast in the movie unsure of what's happening.
Said Taghmaoui, in an interview earlier this week, said that he had been casting - but that Danny Boyle's shock exit threw his own casting into limbo. Much of that hinged on a decision by the producers to go with a certain nationality of villain, and now it seems like that decision has either been made or is about to be.
Per a report in the Daily Mail, veteran screenwriters in the Bond series Robert Wade and Neal Purvis have been drafted in to replace John Hodge, a screenwriter clearly put in place by Boyle as part of his creative control over 'Bond 25'.
Hodge has been Boyle's go-to writer for screen adaptations, having done work on 'Trainspotting', 'The Beach' and began his partnership with Boyle on 'Shallow Grave'. Purvis and Wade, meanwhile, have had a hand in every Bond movie since 1999's 'The World Is Not Enough' and funnily enough wrote the Bond spoof 'Johnny English' in 2003. Given how 'Bond 25' has been pushed back from its original release date of 2019, Purvis and Wade now have time to retool the script and whether or not elements that have leaked out stay in remains to be seen.
One thing's for certain, however - this amount of behind-the-scenes drama playing out in public on a Bond movie is definitely a surprise, and doesn't bode well for the future of the franchise.
