Spectre returns to haunt James Bond

He made the announcement at an event staged at Pinewood Studios where he also outlined further details including naming Lea Seydoux and Monica Bellucci who will become Bond girls.

Oscar-winning Austrian actor Christoph Waltz will play a villain in the film while Andrew Scott, best known for his role as Moriarty in BBC One’s Sherlock, will join the cast as one of 007′s Whitehall bosses.

Bond, once again played by Daniel Craig, will be driving an Aston Martin, this time a DB10. Movie fans saw a previous Aston, his vintage DB5, was blown to pieces in Skyfall.

The film is named after the shadowy terrorist organisation created by Bond author Ian Fleming, which first appeared in his novel Thunderball. Fleming created Spectre as an acronym for SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Robotics and Extortion, an organisation led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Austrian actor Waltz, 58, confirmed he will play a character named Oberhauser, but remained tight-lipped over rumours he would be portraying a villain. Austrian skiing instructor Hannes Oberhauser formed a paternal relationship with Bond and was referred to as his second father, before his mysterious disappearance.

Mendes, who is in the director’s chair for a second Bond film, said the team were “very excited to be on the verge of shooting” the next instalment.

Daniel Craig is returning for his fourth Bond movie and was also present at today’s announcement on the 007 sound stage at Pinewood, which has been the traditional production base for the movies and where they are currently in rehearsals.

Other returning figures include Ralph Fiennes, who comes back as Gareth Mallory – the new M, whom film fans saw succeeding the character played by Dame Judi Dench in Skyfall. Rory Kinnear returns as Tanner, Naomie Harris is back as Eve Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw has another outing as Q.

Locations for the new film will include London, Mexico City, Rome, Morocco’s Tangier and Erfoud, as well as Solden in Austria, which promises to see Bond returning to the ski slopes.

“All of them are amazing places. I’m very excited to be going to these locations over seven months, which is how long we’ll be shooting,” said Mendes.

Until very recently the production team behind the Bond films did not have the rights to the character Blofeld but a dispute was finally settled in November last year which allowed them to once again have the rights to figures from the Thunderball book.

Announcing the production today, film-makers said of the plot: “A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind Spectre.”

There will be high expectations for the film – to be released on November 6 next year – as its predecessor was the biggest movie ever at the UK box office, taking in excess of £100 million.

Companies which have already signed up to feature in the film, in addition to Aston Martin, Bollinger, Heineken, Jaguar Land Rover, Omega, Sony Electronics, and Sony Mobile.

There will now be speculation over the coming months about who will sing the theme song, to follow Adele’s performance on the Skyfall soundtrack.

Bookmaker William Hill puts Sam Smith as favourite at 4/1, with Ed Sheeran second at 6/1, while Lana del Rey, Rita Ora and One Direction are at 8/1.

“The Spectre of Adele’s smashing effort for Skyfall will still be looming large but Sam Smith could certainly be the man to take over the mantle,” said Hill’s spokesman Joe Crilly.