Empire UK

so you raise the temperature a bit.”
The Craig Bonds had already
introduced the concept of a direct sequel
into the Bond franchise. Quantum Of
Solace picks up mere minutes after Casino
Royale ended. So it shouldn’t come as
a huge surprise considering Skyfall’s
enormous cultural impact that Spectre
is a direct follow-up. But Mendes is keen
to point out that it’s not simply Skyfall 2.
“It’s quite a different film” adds
Mendes. “It’s quite daring to take
something that you know has worked
and turn it around. For me the idea of
trying to do another Bond movie and do
something exactly the same would seem
to be foolish. It was about being able to
do things with this movie that I hadn’t
been able to do on the last one.”
One of those things is expansion
and the embracing of a wider story for

7. The MI6 set is so large that it plays
   host to holding cells in which a shadowy
   someone has placed photos of people
   who would be living and breathing still
   had it not been their misfortune to know
   one man in particular: Bond. We won’t
   give away the identities but there are
   blasts from Bond’s past that stretch
   back to Casino Royale. “A weird game
   is being played” teases Mendes. “That’s
   definitely front and centre in terms
   of an attempt to give a shape to all the
   Daniel Craig Bond movies. We wanted
   this to be an accumulation a gathering
   of everything that he’s done as Bond.”
   So then to the big question: who’s
   the Machiavellian genius ( besides our
   esteemed editor of course) behind that
   weird game? The name’s Oberhauser.
   Franz Oberhauser.

ONG STORY SHORT: FOR
decades Eon didn’t have the
rights to evil organisation
SPECTRE or its leader the
bald scarred cat-stroking
blowhard Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Now
they do. So when the movie and its cast
were unveiled to the world’s media
last December just before the start of
filming everyone presumed that a film
called Spectre had to include Blofeld.
And the presumption was that Waltz
just had to play him. Had to be.
However it seems that may
have been a case of putting 002 and
002 together to make 007. Much
has changed about this very modern
iteration of the Special Executive
for Counter-intelligence Terrorism
Revenge and Extortion. Blofeld
it seems is yesterday’s news.
Oberhauser according to Mendes
is “a figure that has a root in Bond’s past

Bond and Madeleine

Swann enjoy a toast

on a train bound for

Morocco. No prizes

for guessing what

they’re drinking.

Q (Ben Whishaw)

prepares to do

something to Bond’s

favourite arm.

Lucia Sciarra (Monica

Bellucci) apparently

in mourning.

SPECTRE cad Franz

Oberhauser (Christoph

Waltz) and Madeleine

Swann. This does

not appear to be

a friendly chat.