‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Premieres 007 Video Blog (Video)

After a seemingly indefatigable series of false starts and interruptions, shooting is now underway for Skyfall, the 23rd installment in the James Bond franchise. Early Wednesday, director Sam Mendes posted the his first video blog from the set via 007.com, the series’ official website, where fans and industry pundits can watch the production as it progresses.

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Truth be told there’s not a whole lot of substantial information revealed in the 90-second clip, in which Mendes offers some insights into why he took on the film, and how he wants to approach the material. “It is still possible to make a big, fabulous, glamorous, escapist movie, and yet to say something about the world that we’re living in,” Mendes insists.

Although he essentially ignores Marc Forster's critically-clobbered A Quantum of Solace, the director pays tribute to Martin Campbell’s work in Casino Royale, which genuinely resuscitated the franchise after Pierce Brosnan’s installments struggled to find a balance between the spy intrigue of the earliest films and action set pieces demanded by audiences in the late 1990s and early ‘00s. (That the blog features behind-the-scenes footage of Casino Royale, but little of Mendes’, feels like a bit of a cheat.)

Check out the clip and let us know how – if at all – impacts your expectations for Skyfall.