Pages exist — Steven Knight says he’s finished first draft of the new James Bond script

Right, time for another round of James Bond whisperings — and yes, the reboot machine is properly up and running this time. With Amazon swanning in to buy up MGM a couple years back, everyone’s been waiting for the next move: fresh era, fresh Bond, endless speculation. And in the middle of all the casting drama, there’s finally a small but significant update straight from the writers’ room.

Script Moves — But Still No New Bond

The main update isn’t actually about who’ll be stepping into the tux (although that circus continues), but about the words they’ll be reading. Steven Knight—yes, that’s Peaky Blinders’ own—has wrapped up the first draft for the new Bond script. He dropped the news on Greatest Hits Radio after Zoe Ball tried to get the goods out of him, to which he basically pantomimed his way around a straight answer. Still, the cat’s out of the bag now: first draft done and dusted. Knight’s been predictably chuffed about the whole thing, saying the gig is ‘more than bucket list’ and even calling it his ‘duty for King and country’—which is probably half serious and half winding us up, but there we are.

Steven Knight, on BBC Radio, said about agreeing to write Bond: 'I’m absolutely loving doing it. It’s an honor to be asked. And believe it’s going to be so good. I really do believe it’s going to be amazing.'

For the casting obsessives: while nothing has been made official, the rumour mill will not rest. Gary Oldman, of all people, seems to think things are a little further along than we’ve been told. Chatting away, he recently said Jack Lowden is apparently at the top of the shortlist, claiming ‘they have picked him’, though there’s been no studio announcement—and frankly, we all know actual casting announcements unfold with all the subtlety of a Bond villain’s monologue. So we wait.

Behind the Camera: Villeneuve On Board

The new film’s already got a seriously heavyweight director attached: Denis Villeneuve, fresh off Dune fever and probably the best Bond option since, well, Sam Mendes. He’s made no secret of his Bond fandom—according to Villeneuve himself, he’s been a diehard 007 watcher since the Dr. No days with his dad. Here’s what he had to say about finally landing the gig:

Villeneuve summed up his enthusiasm to Variety: 'Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since "Dr. No" with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory.'

He’s also insisted this is about carrying on tradition rather than blowing it all up for the sake of it, saying he intends to ‘open the path for many new missions to come’ and thanking Amazon MGM for the trust — which, to be fair, is probably what you say when someone hands you a billion-dollar franchise and tells you not to break it. So, that’s where we’re at: script’s cooking away, director’s locked in, and the rest is just waiting for that big ‘Bond, James Bond’ pronouncement, whenever the studio decides to make it official.