003 HOURS!
Filmgoers will need to be shaken AND stirred after sitting through the new Bond. Like so many of today’s interminable movies, it lasts nearly...
HE IS renowned for his quick wit and the speed at which he drives his Aston Martin, but there will be no rushing the latest James Bond film, which is likely to become the longest ever.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that cinemas have been told to allow three hours for each screening of No Time To Die, the 25th outing for 007.
It is still being edited and, according to a source, currently runs to two hours and 54 minutes – though it may get even longer.
‘Distributors and cinemas have to be told well in advance how long a film is so they can plan the number of daily screenings,’ the source said. ‘This film is so long because they were constantly adding pages to the script and filming went on way longer than was scheduled.
‘First there were script issues and then Daniel got injured. He wants his final Bond to be perfect but a lot of people are going to be leaving the cinema to have a bathroom break because this one is clocking in at nearly three hours.
‘It’s a great film, but there’s a very real fear that audiences are going to be kicking their heels at the length of this one.’
Some film-lovers have been dismayed by recent hit movie marathons, including The Irishman (3h 29m) and Avengers: Endgame (3h 1m).
And The Mail on Sunday’s film critic Matthew Bond believes a three-hour Bond movie would be a risk.
‘There’s no doubt that committing themselves to a near threehour running time is a big gamble for the producers,’ he said. ‘Especially when there is a growing body of opinion that modern films are simply getting far too long.
‘But the Bond producers are hugely experienced and tend to get these things right.
‘While the bottom line – profit – will be uppermost in their minds, they’ll also want to give Daniel Craig a big send-off.’
No Time To Die was scheduled for release in November but Craig insisted on bringing in Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge to rewrite the script to make it more ‘woke’ for a modern audience.
The average running time of Bond films has steadily risen from an average of two hours one minute in the 1960s with classics like Dr No (1962, 1h 50m); and Goldfinger (1964, 1h 50m); to an average of 131 minutes in the 1980s with Octopussy (1983, 2h 11m); and Licence To Kill (1989, 2h 13m).
But it was when Craig, 51, took over as the legendary secret agent in 2006 with Casino Royale (2h 24m) that the running times really began to lengthen.
While his second movie Quantum Of Solace in 2008 was a nifty 1h 46m, his last two outings – Skyfall and Spectre – were 2h 23m and 2h 28m respectively.
Sean Connery, considered by many to be the greatest Bond, averaged 1h 59m per film, while Roger Moore clocked in at an average of 2h 7m per movie. Craig already boasts the three longest Bond films.
The source described No Time To Die director Cary Fukunaga’s set as ‘chaotic’, adding: ‘The script was constantly being added to. The plot was changing as we went along. Phoebe was adding in pages. It was chaotic. They just kept shooting more and more. Everyone is determined this will be the best Bond ever, so they kept adding scenes.
‘There were delays when they brought in Phoebe and then more delays when Daniel hurt his leg in an accident. At times it felt like it was jinxed.’
And The Mail on Sunday can reveal there is one twist that only added to the film’s difficulties. Footage of the ‘baddies’ lair’ was filmed on White Island in New Zealand, where a volcanic eruption in December tragically killed 21 people.
Oscar-winner Rami Malek – who starred as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody – plays an evil ‘eco terrorist’ hellbent on destroying the world.
The source said: ‘His lair is supposed to be a former Second World War island bunker.’
A crew was sent from Britain to film on White Island. The source said: ‘It was just crew, not Daniel or Rami, and they filmed several months before the explosion happened, but it’s still heartbreaking.
‘We are still not sure if we will include the footage in the movie. There is concern about how fans will react once they find out.’
According to data researcher Stephen Follows, average film running times fell during the 2000s from just over 1h 37m in 1999 to about 1h 33m in 2009.
After that, however, they began to rise and reached about 1h 36 minutes in 2018.
But there is some good news for 007 fans and Bond producers – Oscar-nominated films over the past two decades have been far longer than average, at 2h 8m.
Last night, a spokesman for Eon Productions, which makes the Bond films, declined to comment.