He may come up trumps against evil villains with high-tech lairs but it seems Bond has met his match: administrative red tape. The Bond franchise's debt-ridden home studio MGM has been the subject of speculation for some time, with either a sale or a restructuring expected to alleviate its $3.7bn debts.
Neither have happened, however, and the Eon Productions film - Bond 23, set to be directed by the Oscar-winning Sam Mendes for a late 2011 or early 2012 release - has suspended development.
"Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development of Bond 23 indefinitely," producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of Eon Productions explained in a statement. They added that "we do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release for the film".
The new 007 film - a sequel to Quantum of Solace with Daniel Craig back as the super-spy - has already been mired in controversy after screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) was said to have quit the project following the arrival of Mendes to direct. This latest development throws even Mendes' involvement into doubt.
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