The new issue of Empire hits the stands today, and behind that rather snazzy Daniel Craig cover lies an in-depth look at Skyfall, the new James Bond film that is shaping up to be one of the biggest movies of the year. Our Dan Jolin visited the film's set and spoke to those involved, and here's what director Sam Mendes had to say.

And it sounds like he's having fun. "There's an enormous amount of pleasure in making a movie where I don't feel like I'm having to walk a knife-edge between genres or work in shades of grey. Thrills and action are what's necessary here, and that's what I intend to supply, as well as a kind of emotional engagement that maybe you haven't seen before in Bond. You've got to give him an arc, not just a mission."

But specifics! We want specifics! Here's a taste of the film's early stages. "Bond's mission has taken him to Shanghai first, and in Shanghai he gets a lead that the person he's looking for is in Macau. He has only one very slender lead and it takes him to a casino on a lake."

Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould also promises us "a big shoot-out sequence in a country home, with incendiaries coming through the windows and a big helicopter 50-cal [gun] strafing through the walls...real in-yer-face stuff."

Mendes also adds that Skyfall will see 007 "physically pushing himself" and says that he takes the character "to another level where Daniel isn't just playing things he'sdone before, where we felt we were pushing - I have to say this in a way that's not giving too much away - the personal history of the character."
 

Skyfall is out on October 26, and there is much, much more about it in the new issue of Empire, which you can pick up today - or subscribe here, so that you can be sure of getting our cool subscribers covers in future.