With the growing excitement and speculation surrounding the new Bond movie - due out next year - Leicester's head of Film Studies Professor James Chapman has been called upon by the BBC to provide his perspective on the upcoming film. An announcement today will reveal details of the cast and title, but with Sam Mendes already confirmed as director some fans have speculated that the iconic action sequences could be toned down in favour of a more sedate affair.

Unlikely, says Professor James Chapman, head of our Department of History of Art and Film and in-house expert on James Bond. Since the Bond films have built a reputation for all-out action and spectacular chases, the franchise is unlikely to abandon the very things that make it so popular. Professor Chapman, who has written a book about the iconic British spy, is happy to reassure fans that they can expect 007 to cause his usual high-octane mayhem in the upcoming film.

Production have already confirmed that Daniel Craig will return for his third outing as James Bond, and further details of the supporting cast and title are expected later today - exactly fifty years after Sir Sean Connery was named as the first 007. The new movie is scheduled for release in November 2012, in time for the 50^th anniversary of the release of the first Bond film Dr. No.

Professor Chapman is the author of Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films.