Waiting for Bond

The next arch villain will have a long time to wait before uttering the phrase: "Come in Mr Bond." Given MGM's severe financial woes, Bond's owners and producers have had to put production of Bond 23 on an indefinite hold.

EON is the production company that owns the rights to make the Bond films, but the distribution contract is with MGM - and MGM is in Stromberg's elevator, the floor splitting apart and one very hungry shark beneath!

But, as is tradition, Bond will return: the two Daniel Craig movies combined made $1.2bn worldwide, so if MGM fails, another distribution deal will be struck - almost certainly with Sony, which has been keen to get its hands on Bond for generations.

Craig's third installment as Bond was expected in 2011 or 2012, which at four years would be the joint second-longest break between Bond films (shared with the gap between Die Another Day and Casino Royale - 2002 to 2006). The longest break is the six years between the end of Timothy Dalton in Licence To Kill in 1989 and the start of Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye in 1995.

Looking back, you can understand why Sean Connery got burned out/bored by Bond so quickly: Dr No was released in 1962 and his fourth, Thunderball (if I recall correctly, the most successful Bond film at the box office once corrected for inflation), arrived in 1965. He had two years off before being lured back to Twice and then walked away only to return in 1971 with Diamonds.

Roger Moore appeared in his first two in the space of two years (ditto Tim Dalton) before a three-year gap allowed Spy to flourish in 1977. Thereafter, there was a Bond film every two years up to and including Dalton's farewell in 89.

Brosnan delivered one every two years from 1995 to 1999, and then there was a three-year hiatus until DAD. And the rest is recent history.

Given that EON will now have an enforced lay-off, I hope they take the time to select a top writer and a top director (Ridley Scott please!!!) to correct the mistakes of Quantum and give Daniel Craig a fitting finale.

Finale? That's right! Given the delay, he'll be too old for a fourth installment, so a new Bond will be needed - and I offer the obvious choice for the job: Michael Fassbender.