Ralph Fiennes has said he believes filming for the next James Bond film, provisionally named Shatterhand, will begin as early as May.
The actor – who has played M, the head of the secret intelligence service, since 2012 – has not yet received a script or a start date.
However, speaking on Lorraine on ITV, he said he expected filming to begin in May or June.
The 56-year-old said: “Well, I know we are shooting this year. I’m genuinely not being coy. I have not yet got a script and I don’t have a start date.
“I know that Daniel (Craig) is playing Bond and I’m looking forward to starting, I think, sometime in May or June.”
Asked about the time he was approached to play 007, he said: “Years ago I talked to (Bond executive) Barbara Broccoli, and indeed her father Cubby briefly.
“But it didn’t work out and I think actually Pierce Brosnan, who was a fantastic Bond, played it, which was great.
“And I feel, on reflection, that I am happy playing M. I think Daniel is a brilliant, brilliant Bond.”
Fiennes is making his third directorial film effort with The White Crow, about Russian ballet star Rudolf Nureyev’s defection to the West in 1961.
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