Bond Film ‘No Time to Die’ Pushed Back to October

(Bloomberg) -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “No Time to Die,” the next installment in the James Bond series, was delayed once again in a bet that the pandemic will have subsided by later this year.

The movie, originally slated for 2020 and previously pushed back to April 2 of this year, is now set to debut on Oct. 8. The Daniel Craig film will be distributed globally by Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures and in the U.S. by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture with MGM.

Donna Langley, head of Universal’s filmed entertainment, warned last week that more films would have to be delayed this year.

“We are analyzing the landscape as we speak and of course had anticipated that this is a likely scenario, and have assessed alternate dates for all of our titles if that proves necessary,” Langley said in a Q&A with Bloomberg.

As part of the schedule shake-up, MGM will move its untitled “Addams Family” sequel to Oct. 1 from Oct. 8, freeing up the slot for “No Time to Die.”

Since the pandemic crippled the cinema industry in March, few major movies have been released in theaters. “Wonder Woman 1984” hit the big screen last month, but it debuted at the same time on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, HBO Max.

MGM held discussions with Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc. about taking “No Time to Die” directly to streaming, people familiar with the situation said last year. The film could have fetched hundreds of millions of dollars in a potential streaming sale, according to the people. MGM declined to comment on any talks, but said the movie was “not for sale.”