Jane Bond: Death is Not Enough

Death is Not Enough is the first film in the gender-bent series of Jane Bond films, a franchise that takes the place of the long-standing James Bond series.

Emma Watson plays the leading character, Agent Jane Bond 007 of MI6. She has no relation to the character James Bond as he does not exist in this franchise's universe.

Background
The film was first rumoured in 2008 when Quantum of Solace did not perform as well at the box office as hoped by Eon Films and Sony Pictures. They were eager to reboot the franchise but after discussions with actress Cate Blanchett fell through. The studio opted to produce Skyfall instead. After Skyfall was both a commercial and critical sensation, a female Bond film was put on hiatus as Spectre entered production.

Spectre was satisfactory at the box office, despite not being as successful as it's predecessor, but failed with critics who called it 'bland' and 'not very bond', this left a sour taste in the studio's mouth and they officially dropped Daniel Craig as the lead after he commented he'd rather 'slash his wrists' than play Bond again. This decision wasn't immediately made public.

During awards season 2016, Cate Blanchett revealed she had once been in talks to play Jane Bond in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. The report quickly spread and the news went viral, much to Sony and Eon's dismay. In March 2016, the studios announced Daniel Craig would not be returning as James Bond but a new 007 film would go into production soon. A release date was set for November 9th 2017.

In May 2016, People Magazine in the US reported that British actor had officially signed a contract of 3 films to star in the leading role of the Bond franchise. Sony Pictures refused to comment but 3 days following the report, Sony confirmed that while Lewis was joining the franchise, he would not be portraying the lead role.

At San Diego Comic Con 2016, a 007 panel was confirmed and Sony revealed details and casting would be confirmed at the convention.

The panel was moderated by Simon Pegg and initially consisted of two executives from Sony and Eon, who then announced the writers of the new film, acclaimed TV writer and executive Shonda Rhimes and British screenwriter Jane Goldman. The executives commented that Rhimes was recruited for her ability to write strong powerful female roles and Goldman, after her critically acclaimed piece of writing in the form of Kingsman, was clearly an expert at writing a new kind of spy action film. The director was revealed to be Sofia Coppola. It was left to Coppola to reveal who the new Bond would be and she revealed she'd chosen a person she had previously worked with and who both Rhimes and Goldman were a fan of. Coppola then confirmed that the new 007 would be portrayed by Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame and who had previously worked with Coppola on The Bling Ring. Watson commented at the event that she was both excited and shocked she had received the role. The rest of the cast were then announced and joined the team on stage: Emma Thompson would be taking on the role of M, Colin Firth would be Q and Damien Lewis will be Austin McKenzie, the first 'Bond Boy' with Julianne Moore and Robert Downey Jr. playing a brother and sister villainous role in the film. The title of the film was then announced as Death is not Enough.

Principal photography began in September and was completed in December, reshoots occurred in February and Coppola confirmed the film was complete in June 2017.

Teaser trailers in the style of hackings were released as part of viral marketing over the course of the holiday season 2016. The first teaser featured Moore and Downey Jr in character threatening to leak government information if their Twitter account didn't reach 500,000 followers by the following week. A connected marketing account was created entitled @BRINGDOWNBRITAIN and it gained the amount of Twitter followers within the week. A second teaser was released, featuring both Moore and Downey Jr. again. They said they would leak the information anyway. This lead to a third teaser appearing on the Twitter account, this time featuring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth in a CCTV-style video that revealed details of an impending cyber-terrorist attack on British computers. The date was set for January 1st 2017. Sony Pictures later confirmed this was the date the first trailer for the film was set to premiere online. The trailer premiered and broke the YouTube record for most watched movie trailer in 24 hours. The trailer revealed Freddie Highmore's casting as Evan Moneypenny, a rookie agent and M's son (M standing for Moneypenny in this case).

The film premiered in London on September 29th 2017 with a star studded red carpet of the cast and celebrity fans. The film was released just over a week later and was both a commercial and critical success and replaced Star Wars Episode VIII as the highest-grossing film of the year, taking in £1,324,956 by the end of 2017. A sequel was soon confirmed entitled The American Assassin, with a release date of October 2019 confirmed. It was also revealed Meryl Streep would be added to the cast as M's FBI counterpart.

Plot
TBA

Cast

 * Emma Watson as Agent Jane Bond 007 of MI6
 * Emma Thompson as Dame Agatha Moneypenny AKA 'M', head of MI6
 * Colin Firth as Quentin Watersmith AKA 'Q', head of computing and technology at MI6
 * Damien Lewis as Austin McKenzie, a casino owner who gets caught up in terrorist activity, Jane's main love interest.
 * Julianne Moore as Katriana Simpson, Co-founder of the World Terrorist Organisation's BRING DOWN BRITAIN unit with her brother, Viktor. The film's primary female antagonist.
 * Robert Downey Jr. as Viktor Simpson, Co-founder of the World Terrorist Organisation's BRING DOWN BRITAIN unit with his sister, Katriana. The film's primary male antagonist.
 * Tom Hardy as William Bodyman, the Simpson's go-to hitman who is hunting down Bond with the intention of killing her.
 * Freddie Highmore as Agent Evan Moneypenny, Bond's assigned companion and M's son.