James Bond Will Return...in 2011

According to an article on the HDRoom.com website, the next James Bond adventure will commence filming in late 2010. While signing autographs on Broadway the other night, actor Daniel Craig said that the next film would start shooting at the end of next year, which would put in on track to be released in November of 2011. With the exception of 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies", every new James Bond film since 1995 has opened in November to great box-office success.

The three-year gap between Bond 23 and the last film, 2008's "Quantum of Solace", might also help the overall quality of the final product. "Casino Royale" had a fully developed plot and characters to go along with the action, "Quantum of Solace" had minimal amounts of the former two and too much of the latter that was far too much like a Jason Bourne film. "Solace" did play better at home with the mindset that this movie was to "Casino Royale" what "Star Trek III" was to "Star Trek II": a third act. Does that excuse its debits? No. But it does make the disappointment a little hard to digest.

Since the screenwriters, including "Queen" and "Frost/Nixon" screenwriter Peter Morgan (which made me very happy), began work earlier this year on 007's next assignment, perhaps the lengthy pre-production period will bring forth a script worthy of "Royale" or even "Goldeneye".

Hopefully the time frame will also give the producers plenty of time to find a director who knows how to better handle the action. Marc Forster is a decent actor when it comes to smaller, more intimate stories (I loved "Stranger Than Fiction"). Big budget action films? Eh, not so much.

Possible candidate recommendations? "District 9" director Neil Blomkamp or perhaps "Slumdog Millionaire" helmer Danny Boyle? Better yet, how about bringing back Martin Campbell? After all, the man did direct "Goldeneye" and "Casino Royale". He does know a little bit about making a James Bond film work.