Bond Still Benched Due To MGM Money Woes

The current financial climate has done what S.P.E.C.T.R.E. could not: get James Bond out of the game.

The start date for principle photography on “Bond 23,” the working title for the new Daniel Craig-as-James Bond movie, is on hold due to the pending sale of parent studio MGM. Takeover bids are circulating, and will be finalized in the next few weeks.

While the rumours of selling the massively lucrative James Bond property to 20th Century Fox have not panned out, leaving Bond on the shelf while MGM gets its money straight isn’t good for the bottom line. MGM was hoping to have “Bond 23″ in theaters this holiday season, but now no one will go on record with an estimated start date. Interviews with Craig and Judi Dench have hinted at a late 2010 shooting schedule in interviews this season.

Producer Michael Wilson told Total Film how far the production was down the road, before the brakes were put on:

We’ve hired the writers and we’ve been working with them but it’s just too early to say anything. You know, often at this stage, I find myself saying, ‘Oh, we’re gonna do this and that’, then six months from now you’ll say, ‘That isn’t in the film at all – you told me it was…’ I think we’re at the stage where a lot of ideas are floating around that sound very good, but whether they make the final cut, who knows?