The next Bond movie has its villain, and for the first time since the early 80’s, James Bond will face off against cat-stroking supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. And who would you cast in such an imposing, iconic role? Why, Christoph Waltz, the man who makes drinking milk seem intimidating.
While Waltz’s casting was announced a while ago, it was not announced who he was playing until now. Waltz is the ninth actor to play the role, whose previous inhabitants included Max Von Sydow, Donald Pleasance, and (mine and Swankmotron’s favorite) Telly Savalas.
What makes Blofeld so iconic is his status as the leader of SPECTRE, and evil spy organization often facing off against Bond and MI6. Blofeld was actually only seen in he shadows in his first several appearances, and wasn’t even named until his appearance in “You Only Live Twice.”
At his worst, Blofeld also made it personal with Bond, murdering his newly-wed wife in the finale of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” In revenge, Bond dropped Blofeld down a chimney in the opening sequence of “For Your Eyes Only” in one of the most ridiculous and lame sequences in the Roger Moore era (which is saying something!).
Blofeld, while iconic, has been in a legal limbo for the last thirty years. Those familiar with the strange legal history of the Bond franchise know that the original script for “Thunderball” was co-written by Ian Fleming (the author of the Bond novels) and Kevin McClory. Later legal tussles claimed McClory should own a larger stake in the Bond franchise and should be paid for character rights for all later films. A judge somewhat sided with McClory, giving him unlimited rights to remake versions of “Thunderball,” which spawned the semi-remake “Never Say Never Again,” which also brought Connery back to playing Bond. But along with thus, he also got a piece of the rights to the film’s villain, Blofeld. (Sheesh– no wonder the Bond producers wanted to drop him down a chimney! A nice giant middle finger to McClory and the “Never Say Never Again” team)
The rights to the character were finally returned to the main Bond franchise a few years ago in a settlement with the McClory estate, allowing them clear legal rights to bring him back. Given the Bond franchise’s interest in re-synthesizing all of the previous Bond films, including both the Casino Royale reboot and Skyfall “origin story,” bringing in Blofeld now makes sense.
In fact, I’ve often told Swankmotron that they should just remake “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” a film which is among our favorites in the franchise but yet gets no respect because it stars George Lazenby, not Sean Connery. A Blofeld story, now complete with Ralph Fiennes as M and a real Moneypenny and Q, could bring the franchise full circle.
There have also been other clues, though not confirmed, that Blofeld will appear first as a potential ally for Bond, then revealing himself later to be the villain. The other rumor is that Waltz has signed on for two films, which would give them an opportunity to further develop his menace.
Or at least drop him unceremoniously into a smokestack.
We’re excited! What about the rest of you robots? Let us know in the comments below.