• Daniel Craig is back as Bond, the spy series' producers confirmed, in a Danny Boyle-directed film due for release in 2019. Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions announced Thursday that production on the 25th official James Bond thriller will begin in December at London's Pinewood Studios. Craig will reprise his role as 007 and Oscar-winner Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) will direct from a screenplay by Boyle's frequent collaborator John Hodge. Confirmation of Craig's fifth Bond film followed speculation that the 50-year-old actor was about to hand in his license to kill. He said in 2015 that he would rather "slash my wrists" than return to the role -- but later backtracked on those remarks, made just after he finished filming his fourth Bond film, Spectre. Boyle has directed Craig as Bond once before, in a 007-themed segment for the opening of the 2012 London Olympics. EON said that after more than a decade at Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures will release the next installment of the superspy franchise internationally. As per tradition, Bond 25 will open a bit earlier in the U.K., on Oct. 25, 2019, than in the U.S., where it will debut on Nov. 8, 2019.
• Sir Ian McKellen says his role as King Lear in a forthcoming London production may be his last major Shakespeare role but he has no plans on retiring, as long as his knees and memory hold out. Playing the tormented ruler is one of two projects prompting reflection from the 79-year-old star of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings film series. "I'll keep going as long as the knees keep going. And the mind and the memory are still there. Any day now they can begin to fade and then I'll perhaps regret that I didn't do stuff I could have done while I was fit. So being fit, here I am and if I'm not acting, what the hell am I going to do but sit at home?" McKellen said in a recent interview. McKellen is playing King Lear in a production at London's Duke of York Theatre starting in July. He is reprising a role he played for the Royal Shakespeare Co. a decade ago. He says playing King Lear allows him to reflect on the journey of an old man, one that feels very personal to him. "For me, it's worth re-exploring because nearly 80 myself, that's King Lear's age, I can concentrate in part on the fact that it's an old man, it's an old man's journey, it's a man who's withdrawing from life. It's a man whose mind is giving way, really, and much else in his life is a confusion to him and I find that all too easy to relate to. So I take the part very personally."
A Section on 05/26/2018