Fans and the media have been holding their breath awaiting the announcement of the title for the next James Bond movie which was finally unveiled to the world at a press event held at Pinewood Studios in London this morning.
Shooting on the next film – the 24th in the franchise – is to begin this coming Monday with director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) once more at the helm.
Daniel Craig (above, in Skyfall) will reprise his role as the ubiquitous spy James Bond, his fourth outing in the role, with Naomi Harris returning as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M and Ben Wishaw as Q.
Monica Bellucci will play Lucia Sciarra, but the really big news is who will be playing the new Bond bad guy in the new movie. Well, we can now finally confirm that Christoph Waltz will be playing new Bond villain Oberhauser.
Filming will take place in London, Mexico City, Rome, Tangier & Erfoud, Morocco, Solden, Obertilliach and Lake Altausee in Austria, Bond production company Eon has revealed.
Last Bond movie Skyfall was a massive success in the series and saw the franchise back on course after the slightly lacklustre Quantum of Solace.
Skyfall, which chimed spectacularly with the large pro-Brit sentiment surrounding the London 2012 Olympic games, was the highest grossing film at the UK box office. It was a global smash too, taking in more than $1.1bn in cinema receipts across the world.
It was a critical success too, being adored by critics as well as by moviegoers, and it even picked up two Oscars as well, for sound editing and for Adele’s theme song Skyfall.
Spectre (which, by the way, stands for SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is expected to be released next October.