From Tarantino villain to Bond’s cunning nemesis
CHRISTOPH Waltz, the two-time Oscarwinning actor, has jumped on board the 007 Express. He will play a ‘significant’ role in the untitled Bond 24 movie that will begin filming early next month.
However, I am told that the part is a complex one. ‘ It’s not immediately evident whether the part’s friend, or foe, or a bit of both,’ a person who has knowledge of the screenplay told me.
Although someone else on the production let slip that the character Waltz has signed up for is ‘extremely cunning’. ‘A nemesis of sorts,’ they continued.
So will Waltz (pictured) be the movie’s big bad guy?
‘Not so fast . . . just because he has played bad guys in other movies doesn’t mean he’s going to be the baddie here,’ a Bond 24 spook told me, in a clear bit of misdirection. I gather that Bond himself, in the guise of Daniel Craig, has already met with Waltz. So have producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.
Other cast members, including Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux and Rory Kinnear, will meet for a script read-through in just under three weeks.
Director Sam Mendes wants his screenwriters on hand to talk through some of the film’s breathtaking action sequences. The team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are likely to be there, and will be joined by Jez Butterworth.
Butterworth was contacted by Mendes, an old friend, and asked to give the Bond 24 script a polish and fine-tune some of the action scenes.The picture will shoot on locations in Mexico, Austria, Morocco, Italy and London.
Waltz, who won Academy Awards f or performances in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, has spent considerable time in the UK this year filming Tulip Fever for producers Alison Owen and Harvey Weinstein, and Tarzan for director David Yates and Warner Bros. Both movies are out next year.
Another of his pictures, Tim Burton’s Big Eyes, which also stars Amy Adam, i s out on Boxing Day.
SOPHIE STANTON appears opposite Gemma Arterton in Rupert Goold’s superb Made In Dagenham at the Adelphi. She plays Beryl, a seamstress at Ford Dagenham with a degree in effing and blinding. Ms Stanton told me she was inspired by a canteen lady who worked at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art when Stanton was studying there. ‘Do you want peas and f****** carrots with that?’ she’d ask.’ She remembers the woman having a go at Michael Sheen, a contemporary of Stanton’s, when he asked for tartar sauce with his fish and chips. ‘I think it’s because he said: “I’d like tartar today, ta!” ’ she laughed. I notice the show has divided critics, but it’s one of my favourites.