Producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli (her name sounds like a crap cartoon characters) have issued a joint statement saying that work on the twenty-third film in the James Bond franchise – which was planned for release sometime in 2011 or 2012, has been shelved indefinitely. This most certainly means delays for The Hobbit as well, which I’m a lot more upset about if I’m honest, I’ve never been a huge James Bond fan, even though I prefer the new Daniel Craig incarnation. Hopefully MGM can get their finances in order asap and the talent surrounding both films can stick around, especially Directors Sam Mendes and Guillermo Del Toro.

‘Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on ‘Bond 23′ indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of ‘Bond 23.’

This is an unexpected news story, just yesterday I read that Bond 23 was on hold due to the financial problems at MGM, yet today thehollywoodreporter have reported that Oscar winning Director Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road, American Beauty, Road To Perdition and Jarhead ) is set to direct the next installment in the James Bond movie series.

Production is being fast-tracked and could begin as early as June with an eye toward a 2011 release. Plans for the film are moving forward despite a possible sale of MGM. Sony co-produced and distributed the most recent installment of the 007 series with MGM.

For me this is very good news, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of Mendes’ movies. It also stoked me because Mendes is much more of an artsy independent Director who can a tell a meaty story, rather than a big budget, guns blazing, hero saves the day and get’s the girl kind. Hopefully for my personal tastes this shows what Direction Bond 23 is going in, I do prefer Daniel Craig’s incarnation of James Bond, I really enjoyed Casino Royal (to a lesser degree Quantum Of Solace). As a young straight man I still wanna see hot girls and explosions though

To be honest I’ve never been much of a fan of James Bond movies, I do prefer the new Daniel Craig incarnation, I really enjoyed Casino Royal (not so much Quantum Of Solace) but still this article hits the nail on the head for me.

In just about every Bond movie, the bad guys capture James, tie him up to a chair, point a gun to his head, threaten to pull the trigger for 10 minutes, talk to him about how much Bond sucks now, and the bad guy will tell Bond that his wife can score good, and then both Bond and the villian will talk for another 15 minutes that the villians wife is good in bed. And you know what? This gives time for Bond’s hero to come in, save the day for Bond, and Bond ends up finding a way to escape and the bad guys smack themselve’s in the face later on, wondering how Bond escaped so quickly! I mean…dumbass…YOU HAD THE GUN POINTED TO HIS HEAD! YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE TO KILL HIM, BUT WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU WAIT FOR THE GOOD GUY TO COME AND SAVE THE DAY, WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?

In the video below Daniel Craig reveals that Bond 23 will, “start end of next year.” The video features Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, signing autographs for fans after the Broadway production “A Steady Rain,”