You weren’t expecting this, Mr Bond. But it looks like Blofeld’s back
IT’S been more than 30 years since James Bond faced evil Ernst Stavro Blofeld, his most feared adversary. But now the baddie – famous for his trademark white cat and for gruesomely disposing of his failing underlings – is back.
Django Unchained star Christoph Waltz is tipped to play the evil genius in a new 007 movie due to begin shooting next month.
The 58-year-old double Oscar-winner will join a band of stars who have previously played the role. Donald Pleasence starred as Bond’s nemesis in You Only Live Twice in 1967, followed by Kojak star Telly Savalas in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Smooth-voiced actor Charles Gray played the part in Diamonds Are Forever in 1971.
Blofeld had featured in From Russia With Love in 1963, and in 1965’s Thunderball – but the character’s face was not shown and only his lower body was visible as he stroked his white Angora cat.
The villain made his last appearance in an ‘official’ Bond film in 1981 when he featured in For Your Eyes Only. In a nailbiting opening scene, Blofeld is hanging from a helicopter piloted by Roger Moore’s James Bond. The scene ends with Blofeld being dropped down an industrial brick chimney in London.
Waltz’s involvement in the new film – with the working title ‘Bond 24’ – will be confirmed at a press conference in the first week of December.
Eon Productions, which owns the James Bond film franchise, will announce that Waltz will play unknown character Franz Oberhauser, son of the late Hans Oberhauser, a ski instructor who acted as a father figure to Bond.
But senior sources believe the casting is a double bluff worthy of 007 himself and that Waltz is actually playing Blofeld.
One Hollywood source said: ‘Christoph Waltz is playing Blofeld in the next Bond film. The tone of the 007 films has changed significantly in recent years and the producers have changed the character to fit in with the new-look 007.’
Michael G Wilson, who coproduces the Bond films, last night declined to comment on the return of Blofeld, as did a spokeswoman for Eon.