We've been waiting a long time for James Bond 25, officially titled No Time to Die. The movie is finally coming our way next year, but it looks like the long break between installments didn't help the producers figure out how to scale things back on the expense sheet, as this is set to be the most expensive Bond movie ever made. That means, outside of lofty expectations in the quality department, this entry in the long-running franchise will need to make big bucks at the box office to send Daniel Craig's 007 out in the green, and not in the red.

As part of a new wide-ranging profile about the two new Bond girls entering the fold in No Time to Die, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) and Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049), the budget for the movie was discussed. According to this report, it cost $250 million to make. And that's before a surely hefty and expensive marketing campaign. For the sake of comparison, Spectre, the previous entry in the franchise, had a budget of $245 million and went on to gross $880 million at the box office. So it's close, but this seems to signal that the filmmakers didn't scale anything back this time around. This is going to be a big movie.

Just for some perspective. $250 million is roughly the budget of Avengers: Endgame, which went on to become the highest-grossing movie ever with $2.79 billion worldwide. The highest-grossing entry in the history of Bond is 2012's beloved Skyfall, which made $1.1 billion and remains the only Bond movie to ever cross the $1 billion mark. Another interesting point for this entry is that Eon Productions and MGM have partnered with Anapurna to distribute No Time to Die. Sony had been handling the other entries in the Craig era.

Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation) is in the director's chair. It was a rather tumultuous process to get him there, as the producers had a very tough time locking down a director. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) had been hired for the job, before departing just months ahead of filming. That opened the door for Fukunaga to come in. It's also worth mentioning that there are five credited writers, including Bond regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, known script doctor Scott Z Burns, Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. That is highly unusual and makes for an eclectic group.

Daniel Craig is set to retire as James Bond after this movie, which makes it a significant entry in the series. He's set to square off against a villain played by Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), with the help of some old friends in the form of Felix (Jeffrey Wright), Q (Ben Whishaw), M (Ralph Fiennes) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). No Time to Die is set to hit theaters on April 8, 2020. This news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter.