As some of you may know, the budget for the upcoming Bond film Spectre has been increasing rapidly. MGM and Sony were looking for some extra money to get things back on track, and thanks to the Mexican government, they received a much-needed $20 million.
But of course the Mexican officials didn’t just hand Sony the money. They wanted something in return, and what they wanted caused a delay in production. You may remember hearing about that Spectre rewrite last year. At the time, we heard they were just adding a few more gags to the story.
However, the rewrite was a bit more extensive than that. The Mexican government asked for several changes to the script in exchange for the money. The rewrites will reportedly portray a generally favorable image of the country.
Here is a quick recap of what they demanded for the $20 million…
- The main villain cannot be Mexican.
- A Mexican actress must be in the film as a Bond girl.
- Feature the “modern Mexico city buildings”.
- Replace the Mexican police with a “special police force”.
- An international ambassador must replace the Mexico City mayor as the target of an assassination in the film.
We already know number 2 on that list has been completed. Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman joined the film last week.
As we mentioned, this $20 million was desperately needed. Thanks to the Sony hack a few months ago, we learned the film had a budget of $300 million. Sources say they will be going well over the initial budget, which would make this movie one of the most expensive in film history.
We’ll see how it works out for them when the movie hits theaters November 6, 2015.
