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New Writer for Bond 23

Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions and MGM are moving forward on the next 007 installment, hiring “Frost/Nixon” scribe Peter Morgan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to write the script for the 23rd James Bond film, according to Variety.

No start date has yet been set, but sources said EON and MGM are eyeing a 2011 release.

“Peter, Neal and Robert are extraordinarily talented and we’re looking forward to working with the three of them,” Wilson and Broccoli said in a statement.

Both “Quantum of Solace” and “Casino Royale” were co-productions between MGM and Sony, with the latter distributing. The new film will be the first to return as a full MGM release. The first 20 pictures in the franchise were distributed by MGM.

Morgan, who wrote both the play and film “Frost/Nixon” and “The Last King of Scotland” and “The Queen,” has most recently been working on “The Special Relationship” for HBO, and “Hereafter” for DreamWorks. He’ll begin writing on the Bond film after completing those projects.

Aside from the Bond films, Purvis and Wade have been working on “The Brazilian Job,” the sequel to “The Italian Job,” on which they were also writers.

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