Roger Friedman from Fox News is apparently reporting that the villain in the upcoming Bond movie, Bond 22, is a French actor named Mathieu Almaric.  His parents could’ve spelled it Matthew, but, being French, they wanted to remind us through spelling to pronounce it with the proper sneer. Almaric has showed solid acting chops in supporting roles in Munich and Marie Antoinette, and now hopes to translate his giant, lemur-like pupils into action-movie villainy.

I think it’s great casting. He’s got that clammy, semi-translucent skin, and eyeballs from which no light escapes that seem to say, “I’ve been to the future, and it is a dark, slimy place where happiness is a lukewarm brine and eels are your only friends.  Attempt not lying to me, for I can see your thoughts.”

Plus, you know, he’s French.  And no one likes them, am I right!  LOL!

Dan Bradley, the stunt coordinator and second unit director (hee hee, "unit" director) of the two Bourne sequels has been brought on to handle the stunt work on Bond 22.  

Now, I guarantee every other movie blogger on the web is going to be sporting boner-filled sweatpants over this news, but I'm not.  And that's because I like the action sequences in Casino Royale infinitely more than the shakey cam crap in Bourne.  Bourne seems to do what Batman Begins did (loved the movie, hated the way they shot the action sequences), and that's cut from blurry, shakey closeup to blurry, shakey closeup.  Transformers did it too, especially so in the Optimus Prime fight.  I don't get it.  Why spend millions on character design and choreography if you're just going to show us eight split-second closeups of blurry shit in succession that we don't have time to process anyway? How many closeups of Bourne's hand shifting do we see in this scene?  And I'm willing to bet that's just the same shot, repeated. 

If a guy gets his head chopped off in a scene, I don't want to see a closeup of the guy's eyes, then a blur, then a closeup of a bead of sweat, then a blur of the guy's lapel, then a closeup of the sword blade, then the guy's head: I want to see the guy get his goddamned head chopped off.  Quick-cut, shakey cam, blurry garbage cheats us out of experiencing the beauty of the actual fight choreography.

When you see a well-shot fight sequence – Kill Bill, some of the older Jackie Chan stuff, the advance clips from Shoot 'Em Up, Braveheart (I don't care if some of the guys are wearing watches and playing paddy cake in the background, that shit still looks better than Gladiator) – you immediately notice the difference.  The directors have confidence in the way their scenes play out, so they can show it to you, without shaking the camera like a crying baby and using jarring cuts to create artificial tension.  

Guh.  < /rant > 

USA Today had this first picture from the set of Bond 22.  In my expert opinion, the movie is obviously going to be about James Bond wearing a polka dot tie and filming a foxy boxing match.  Oh wait, you want facts?  Jerk.

The Casino Royale star filmed scenes for the anticipated follow-up in Siena, Italy, in a balcony window overlooking the "Madonna dell'Assunta Palio di Siena" traditional horse race. A big tourist draw, the race pits 10 neighborhoods against each other, with horses and their jockeys often tumbling during the action.

Gosh, now we know so much more.  In related news, this dude totally headbutts a horse.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized picture.