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James Bond Producers Reveal New Details About Long-Delayed 25th Movie

Filming begins Sunday with Rami Malek playing the villain, and "Killing Eve" creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a co-writer.

The next James Bond movie will begin filming Sunday after a series of delays, with a cast that includes Oscar winner Rami Malek as the villain opposite star Daniel Craig, the film’s producers said Thursday.

The franchise’s longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson teased the currently untitled 25th installment of the spy series at an event in Jamaica at GoldenEye, the estate of original James Bond novelist Ian Fleming (and the title of a 1995 Bond film).

The new movie had been slated for release this year, but was pushed back twice.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator of the TV shows “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve,” will be one of the film’s credited writers, the producers said. She’ll be the second woman credited as a writer on a Bond film, and the first in more than 50 years.

Johanna Harwood, who worked for original Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman, helped write the first and second Bond movies, “Dr. No” and “From Russia with Love,” released in the 1960s.

The Guardian reported last week that Craig himself, a fan of “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve,” asked Waller-Bridge, known for her acerbic wit, to help improve the script.

Also joining the franchise is actress Lashana Lynch, who recently co-starred in “Captain Marvel” as Maria Rambeau, the best friend of Brie Larson’s titular character. Actors Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Jeffrey Wright will reprise their roles from previous Bond movies, the producers said.

The new film will be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, director of the first season of HBO’s “True Detective.” Fukunaga replaced Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, who dropped out in August, citing “creative differences.”

Craig, who has starred in four previous Bond movies, had reportedly planned to exit the franchise after 2015′s “Spectre.” But in 2017, he announced that the new film would be his last, after denying a rumor that he had been offered as much as $150 million to return for two more Bond installments.

The movie is set for release on April 8, 2020, in the U.S., after an April 3, 2020, release in the U.K.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.