Skip to footer

Christoph Waltz: Will he play a 'Bond' villain?

A 'Bond' insider reportedly said that Waltz has signed on for the next film in the series and that Waltz will be playing 'a nemesis of sorts.' Waltz has played many villainous characters before, most notably in the movie 'Inglourious Basterds,' for which he won an Oscar.

|
Joel Ryan/Invision/AP
Actor Christoph Waltz arrives at the 2014 EE British Academy Film Awards.

Will "Django Unchained" actor Christoph Waltz play the villain in the newest "James Bond" movie?

According to the Daily Mail, Waltz has officially come on board the film, which is being directed by "Skyfall" helmer Sam Mendes. TheWrap reporters Linda Ge and Jeff Sneider note that the Daily Mail writer who reported the news, Baz Bamigboye, "has a solid track record when it comes to 007 news."

According to Bamigboye, he was told by a “Bond insider” that “it’s not immediately evident whether the part’s friend, or foe, or a bit of both” and that “someone else on the production” called Waltz’s character “cunning… a nemesis of sorts.”

Bamigboye writes that “a Bond 24 spook” said, “Just because he has played bad guys in other movies doesn’t mean he’s going to be the baddie here,” but that that seemed to be “a clear bit of misdirection.”

According to TheWrap, neither Waltz nor EON Productions returned their requests for comment.

Waltz won his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film “Inglourious Basterds,” in which he played the charismatic villain Colonel Hans Landa. He also played the villain in the 2011 movie “The Three Musketeers” and the 2011 film “Water for Elephants,” though the film for which he won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the 2012 Quentin Tarantino movie “Django Unchained,” had him portraying the hero’s good-hearted best friend. In his review of “Elephants,” Monitor film critic Peter Rainer wrote that Waltz has a “gift for preening nastiness.”

The new “Bond” film will be actor Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as the superspy. Without accounting for inflation, the previous “Bond” movie, 2012’s “Skyfall,” was the highest-grossing movie in the series, according to the Hollywood Reporter. According to TheWrap, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Ralph Fiennes are all expected to return for the new film. 

The pressure will be on for the newest "Bond" villain to be great – actor Javier Bardem received widespread praise for his turn as the bad guy in "Skyfall," with Rainer calling his character "malevolence incarnate."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Christoph Waltz: Will he play a 'Bond' villain?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2014/1114/Christoph-Waltz-Will-he-play-a-Bond-villain
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe