Now that the whole studio auction and bankruptcy debacle is over and done it looks like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is gearing up for relaunch in a big way come fall 2012. Today, the studio has announced that the 23rd installment in the famed James Bond franchise will go into production in late 2011 and will have its worldwide release occur on November 9, 2012. 
As it stands now, Daniel Craig will be returning as the legendary British secret agent, with Sam Mendes directing a screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.
The big question remains on what studio will be distributing the next James Bond. It is assumed that it could very well be Sony Pictures who handled distribution on Casino Royale. But since the film’s making is being handled by Spyglass Entertainment, which coincidentally also did J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, Paramount may be the studio that gets to handle distribution.
Regarding casting, both producer Barbara Broccoli and Sam Mendes are high on Russell Beale, a Shakespearean actor who will be the star of Mendes’ National Theatre production of King Lear in 2012. Beale told a UK newspaper earlier this year that he’d already dropped a hint to Mendes that “every actor wants to be in Bond [and] I’d love to be a baddie.”
