Just who is James Bond and how did he become Britain's top spy? It seems like the answers to these questions would be found in Daniel Craig's next Bond film "Spectre."
His last film "Skyfall," which was shown in 2007 was an undeniable hit, grossing $1.1 billion worldwide and even became the most successful "007" installment in history. It gave audiences a brief background of Bond's childhood but it also claimed the life of his boss M (played by Judi Dench).
Director Sam Mendes believes that there are a lot of unfinished business in Bond's story, and that is what they hope to explore in "Spectre."
"Bond has been rebooted at the end of the movie," Mendes told Entertainment Weekly. "This is only the beginning of the story."
According to him, "Spectre" will be a culmination of the three previous Bond films which starred Craig, and they managed to develop a backstory that has been left unexplored until now.
"The Bond creation myth never happened," Mendes said. "I felt there was an opportunity there: What made him? And who were the people who affected him along the way? You're sort of telling the story backwards of how Bond became Bond."
They will be incorporating Oberhauser (played by Christopher Waltz) in the next film. He is the mastermind of a notorious criminal syndicate, and he even tells Bond that he is "the author of all your pain."
Moreover, Oberhauser wields an interesting connection to the Bond's past and even puts in danger his love interest (Lea Seydoux) as an added threat.
"A lot of the film is a celebration of what it is to be Bond," Craig said of the upcoming film. "But it's not retro. Hopefully it's not just classic Bond but a classic thriller."
"James Bond" was founded by writer Ian Fleming back in 1953, who featured him in 12 novels and two short story collections. Because Bond became such an iconic character, even after Fleming's death, several writers tried to continue his story - Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver, William Boyd, and Anthony Horowitz.
The first Bond actor is Sean Connery in the 1962 film "Dr. No." Connery reprised his role five more times after that, and it was also portrayed by George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. Craig, on the other hand, is the sixth actor to portray the character.
