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Empire **got the chance to sit down with Bond 24 screenwriter John Logan this morning, and as you would expect us to do, we strapped him to a table and aimed a laser at his nether regions in order to extract as much information as we could. He was, naturally, reticent to divulge too much information, but did confirm a couple of details about the film’s progress.
“Right now the first draft is almost done,” he told us. “I’m terrifically excited about it! I’ve been working *very *closely with Sam (Mendes), and it’s been joyous to pick up from our work on Skyfall and just continue on with the storytelling. The new movie continues the themes of Skyfall. Some of the characters and themes that we began to introduce in Skyfall will play out, I hope successfully, in the next movie.”
What many fans are wondering, though, is whether any themes or specific elements from Casino Royale or Quantum Of Solace might be present in the new film – particularly a certain nefarious organisation who remained absent from Skyfall...
“There might be! Honestly, not being evasive, but the great thing about Bond is that I have fifty years of movies – 23 movies and all the Ian Fleming novels and short stories, all of which are fodder. And when I’m working on the new Bond I’m constantly going back to Fleming and the other movies – what are the bits and pieces, what are the resonances? One of the things we learned in Skyfall is that the audience really enjoyed those, they enjoyed when they saw the Aston Martin, they enjoyed when we had references to things they grew up with, either from Ian Fleming or from the other movies, and that’s always been a part of my thinking about Bond.”
So expect a cameo from Moonraker’s double-taking pigeon, basically. Asked if Daniel Craig would still be as involved in the writing process as he was in his previous films, Logan confirmed that, “Daniel’s very involved. It behoves no-one to write a character that the lead actor doesn’t want to play, so having worked so closely on Skyfall, I have my own sense of what I think Dan responds to, as does Sam, (and producers) Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson of course.”
It’s occurred to **Empire **that Craig’s signing on for two more Bond films might just hint at a two-part story, so we asked if Logan also expected to be beavering away on Bond 25. “I’m just trying to get one done first! If I survive this one, we’ll see about the next one!” Yes John, but *is *it a two-parter? “Couldn’t comment!”
Evidently the laser needed to be shifted a few inches towards the Logan family jewels. A more direct line of questioning was required. Will we see the return of Quantum? “No comment.” Will we see Blofeld in Bond 24? “No comment.” Will there be any other Double-0 agents? A pause, which gave us a quantum of hope. “Ah... no comment!”
Logan did at least repeat Ralph Fiennes’ suggestion that filming on Bond 24 is due to start in October (“I think that’s the plan”), and was giddily effusive about the whole project.
“Working on Skyfall was the most enjoyable experience I’ve ever had on a movie, ever. And I’ve done a lot of movies! And this is shaping up in much the same way, because it’s a loving, sensitive director who loves the material as much as I do, it’s producers and a studio who believe entirely in the story we’re telling and it’s leading actors who are a joy to write for. Honestly, because I’ve been working on both Skyfall and the new Bond simultaneously it’s been a really, exuberantly happy time in my life because what I’m actually writing currently brings me incredible joy.”
With his palpable delight at working on Bond reaching epic proportions, we eased off on the laser and put one final question to him: with **Skyfall **being such a huge movie – and a massive event, given its place in the 50th anniversary celebrations – will Bond 24 be as big? John Logan smiled back at us like a maniacal Bond villain. “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
So stand by for what promises to be the biggest Bond of all (again). **Bond 24 **is released in the UK on October 23, 2015, and in the US on November 6, 2015.