James Bond will travel to Croatia in the 25th instalment of the 007 franchise. The film has the working title Shatterhand and the plot sees Daniel Craig’s spy battle a blind supervillain.
It is based on the 1999 [sic] thriller Never Dream Of Dying by US author Raymond Benson, who also wrote Bond books Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough.
The novel opens with a police raid on a French movie studio that goes badly wrong, while an actress with a sordid past leads Bond to his final target.
Before you get too excited, remember that in July 2013 the Sun reported that Bond 24 would be based on Sebastian Faulks 2008 continuation novel Devil May Care. That movie became SPECTRE. So I wouldn't go "Banco" on this news.
About the only thing I could see coming to pass is the use of the title Shatterhand. This, of course, is Blofeld's cover name in Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice. If Daniel Craig returns (which has not yet been officially confirmed), I could see a continuation of the SPECTRE storyline in which Bond has his final battle with Blofeld a.k.a. Shatterhand in Japan. And it's a great title.
But what about the use continuation novels, Benson or otherwise? While elements from the continuation novels have appeared several times [read: Déjá vu, Mr. Bond], SPECTRE was the first Bond film to finally credit use of a continuation novel element, namely the torture scene from Colonel Sun. So it looks like continuation novels are now in the mix. And Never Dream of Dying, which finds Bond in the world of the movie business, is a terrific book.
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| Never Dream of Dying U.S. and UK first editions. |
At the moment, the only official news about the next James Bond film is that it will be written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and will be released in the U.S. on November 8, 2019.
UPDATE: Raymond Benson has posted the following to his Facebook:
