No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga said the film was always intended to be seen on a big screen as Daniel Craig’s James Bond swansong finally arrives in cinemas.
The blockbuster movie was set for release in April last year before the pandemic intervened and brought the industry to its knees.
Amid the uncertainty wrought by the health crisis, with cinemas around the world closed, it was reported studio MGM considered selling its crown jewel to a streaming service.
Any sale would have generated hundreds of millions of pounds for producers but could have potentially deprived audiences of seeing No Time To Die in cinemas.
US filmmaker Fukunaga is delighted the film will be available on the big screen.
Speaking at the No Time To Die world premiere in London, he told the PA news agency: “I was so happy people are getting to see it in a cinema. We made this, especially shooting on Imax and all the work we did on sound, all the sequences were meant to be seen larger than life on the big screen and shared with audiences for that contagious feeling of emotions when you’re in a cinema.”
Much has been made of No Time To Die’s tone and direction, with some fans speculating it may be a “woke” entry into the series.
It was previously revealed Lashana Lynch, a black woman, would be taking over as 007 in the film following Bond’s retirement while Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to flesh out the script, reportedly with an eye on more realistic female characters.
Fukunaga, 44, promised there are no “huge surprises” in the film but he wanted the women to be “more than one dimension”.
He told PA: “With all my projects I try to make sure all characters are fully rounded and fleshed out and layered and aren’t just there to be a prop.
“I think Daniel already, his run as Bond was very different from previous Bonds and Barbara Broccoli being one of the most successful producers in the world, that’s also part of her ethos.
“So, in this one there aren’t any huge surprises, we just made sure the women were more than one dimension.”