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.

Two weeks ago, Cinematical received an invitation to a two-day press bonanza for Casino Royale. Events would kick off with a Sunday evening cocktail party and screening, followed by a day of round-robin interviews at a swank Park Avenue hotel, with catered breakfast and lunch. We want our readers to know that in order to safeguard our journalistic integrity, we politely declined all the free food and booze, except for a comp hotdog at the screening. Almost every notable from the film, with the exception of Judi Dench, turned up for the question/answer roundtables. Daniel Craig, the controversial choice to re-launch the Bond character, was there. So was the unnervingly beautiful French actress Eva Green, who plays Ian Fleming's first Bond girl, Vesper Lynd. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who was plucked from obscurity to play the film's snake-like villain, Le Chiffre, was also on hand. So was Italian beauty Caterina Murino, who plays a more traditional Bond girl in the film.

Director Martin Campbell, returning for his second Bond film after Goldeneye, and the series' longtime producer Barbara Broccoli, were also in attendance. The following is a sampling of the endless questions and answers bandied about on that day. Please note that it contains every possible spoiler about Casino Royale -- who lives, who dies, the ending, what will happen in the next film, etc ... if you want to be surprised, stop reading now.

Daniel Craig

Cinematical: Barbara Broccoli has implied that she felt Die Another Day was over-the-top. Is that something you personally want to avoid as you go forward with these films? "All I'm concerned about is that we cast the right people in the roles. As for being over the top, I mean for Christ's sakes, Mads weeps blood. That's quite over the top. But it's great because it's a beautiful Bond moment. It's done with a dab. I want it to be as stylish as it possibly can. You can do anything. If it's in the plot, you can do anything. If it's right and it feels good and it's not there because it's self-consciously there. We're in a fantasy world. This isn't real life."