Stolen, not stirred

Cyber thieves have stolen the new James Bond movie script, but what do they have?

Daniel Craig will play James Bond once more, but hackers have stolen an early script for the latest moive. Photo: Joel Ryan / AP

The cyber attack that stole the script for Spectre, the new James Bond movie, sounds just like, well, the script for a James Bond movie. An early version of the script was among a vast range of material stolen when Sony's computer system was hacked, with some accusing the North Korean government of orchestrating it.

Whether this is the work of an evil mastermind sitting in his lavish lair plotting the demise of 007 – or at least the studio’s profit expectations – or just a pimply and pale teenager at a computer terminal, this really does bear all the hallmarks of a thriller.

But the formula unerringly used in the 23 previous Bond movies means we already know the script is likely to contain phrases like “The name’s Bond, James Bond”, “Shaken, not stirred”, “I’ve enjoyed our little game, Mr Bond, but now you must die” and the inevitable fawning Bond girl’s “Oh, James!”

One might wonder what new material there was to steal.