Bond 23 will officially return in November 2012

James Bond

Bond’s had to wait in the wings for what seems like an age while movie studio MGM wrestle out of their financial crisis.

But finally his patience has paid off, as Deadline have confirmed previous reports that Bond 23 has been given an official release date of 9 November 2012.

Which ends up being nicely poetic, seeing as next year will be the 50th anniversary of the first ever Bond film, Dr. No . It’s almost like they planned it…

Adding to the great news comes word that Sam Mendes is still attached to direct, and Daniel Craig is on board to return for his third outing in the tux.

Mendes will apparently work from a script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan, with production officially kicking off later this year.

Is breakfast too early to get ourselves a celebratory Martini?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.