Well, it is called “No Time to Die.”
James Bond appears to have finally met his match: The Chinese premiere and a huge planned publicity tour of the country for the movie franchise’s latest installment have been cancelled because of the deadly coronavirus.
Daniel Craig and other key stars in the upcoming 25th Bond blockbuster were due to travel to China for the flick’s premiere, which was set for April in Beijing, the Sunday Times of London said.
But COVID-19, which has infected more than 69,000 people, has obliterated those plans.
More than 70,000 cinemas across China are currently closed because of the health scare, the report said, and a studio insider added that the key stars are unlikely to get clearance to travel there even if the cinemas start opening again by April.
Deadline confirmed the 007 tour of China also was off because of “uncertainty surrounding the evolution of the epidemic.”
With China being the world’s second biggest box-office market after the US, the Sunday Times said the situation could likely scupper expectations for “No Time to Die” to be the highest-grossing movie in Bond history. The flick is Craig’s last turn as the suave UK spy.
“When you talk about film making $1 billion worldwide, you don’t usually do it without a big chunk of that total coming from China,” Jeff Bock, a senior analyst at entertainment research firm Exhibitor Relations, told the paper.
Other Hollywood films postponed in China because of the health crisis include “1917,” “Doolittle,” “Little Women” and “Jojo Rabbit,” the paper noted.
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