Bond 24: Playwright Jez Butterworth Hired for Final Script Rewrite

Playwright and Edge of Tomorrow writer Jez Butterworth has revealed that he has been hired to apply a final bit of polish to the script for next year's 24<sup>th James Bond film.

Butterworth is best known for the eight plays he wrote between 1992 and 2012, including Mojo and Jerusalem. He has also penned scripts for the big screen including the aforementioned Tom Cruise blockbuster and James Brown biopic Get On Up.

The 45-year-old Brit spoke to The New Yorker while in the Big Apple to promote the new film, and revealed his participation in Sam Mendes' follow-up to 2012's Skyfall. Butterworth did similar work on that film, and spoke of the dos and don'ts of rewriting Bond.

The article describes the changes he would make as those his 12-year-old self would be pleased about. "You know, like Bond doesn't have scenes with other men. Bond shoots other men - he doesn't sit around chatting to them. So you put a line through that."

Bond 24 will start filming on 6 December 2014 following a table-read of the script in late November. No official cast announcement has been made (though one will be made in the coming weeks) but it is believed that Blue is the Warmest Colour star Lea Seydoux will be the female lead with Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista playing a classic, physically-imposing henchman role.

Daniel Craig will return for his fourth outing as Bond, alongside a supporting cast introduced in Skyfall that includes Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q and Ralph Fiennes as M.

Bond 24 will be released on 23 October 2015.