JudiDench Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With filming less than a week old, an entire mini-gallery of photos have arrived from the set of Bond 22. Some of those are 'out of the office' shots of M, played of course by Judi Dench. In the shots that leaked out we see M and one of her confederates walking down some London street -- the kind of scene that will probably comprise two to three seconds of screen time in the finished film, if at all. Some snaps of Daniel Craig were also obtained by JustJared this week and picked up by MI6, when the actor showed up to film some scenes at Burwood Place, London. According to the report on MI6, some are saying that the local fire department was on hand to help the production create fake rain for the location shoot, but this isn't confirmed. The only other thing to be said about the shots is that they are completely unrevealing of anything about the film, other than the fact that it's actually shooting.

Meanwhile, MI6 is also reporting that according to their sources, Gemma Arterton's role in the new Bond film is "not the major role," meaning the real Bond girl has yet to be cast. They stress that "extensive" casting searches have focused on finding a Latin American actress for that position and they also say that Moneypenny is not thought to figure into this film -- so who is Arterton playing? The fact that her given name is "Fields" instead of something like Baroness von Whoever, I now think it's likely to assume that she's some new MI6 recruit who either gets killed early on or turns out to be a villain later in the piece like Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day.

One person you won't get to see win an Oscar this year, even if she does win, is Dame Judi Dench. The six-time nominee (and the only actor to make the crossover from the Pierce Brosnan Bond films to the Daniel Craig Bond films) is unable to attend this year's ceremony because she will be having a knee operation. Apparently she is fine with missing the event, though, and told reporters not to bet on her to win for her performance in Notes on a Scandal. Of course, nobody in their right minds would bet on anybody but Helen Mirren for the Best Actress trophy. Still, it is always nice to see Dench at these things.

It would also be nice to see her win in the Best Actress category at some point. Although she won a supporting Oscar in 1999, for Shakespeare in Love, she also deserves the honor of winning a lead prize. In many ways, she is like Meryl Streep -- dependable, always amazing and often nominated, but perhaps appreciated enough already as one of our 'great actresses' that the Academy feels no obligation to recognize her any further. Hopefully this isn't really the case.