Tags: Dame Judi Dench | Denise Richards | Desmond Llewelyn | John Cleese | Michael Apted | Pierce Brosnan | Robbie Coltrane | Robert Carlyle | Samantha Bond | Sophie Marceau

After the oil tycoon Sir Robert King is killed in a bombing at the MI6 headquarters, his calculating daughter Elektra inherits his fortune - and the majority of the rights to six trillion dollars worth of oil deposits King Enterprises recently discovered in the Caspian Sea.

As Turkey, Russia and Iran each try to woo Elektra into their camp (thus bringing GoldenEye player Valentin Zukovsky and his Russian Mafia connections into the story), James Bond joins her side as a bodyguard, feeling guilt over a link to the cause of her father's death.

Although 007 reportedly saves her from assassins during an exciting ski-sequence, Elektra has other plans. Elektra eventually double-crosses Bond in where else?

A Chechnyan nuclear facility with help from Renard, a henchman with a bullet lodged in his brain that prevents him from feeling physical pain. It is reportedly revealed that the villainess may have had some part in the bombing that killed her father. As the movie moves towards its climax, Bond enlists the help of Dr. Christmas Jones, a sexy nuclear weapons expert who attempts to defuse the weapons of mass destruction set off by Renard.

Will 007's next movie adventure out-do the lackluster Tomorrow Never Dies? Is the Bond movie franchise on the slide? Is the strong cast assembled for The World Is Not Enough a sign that this film has something special going for it?

These questions cannot be answered at this time, but it has been revealed that Bruce Feirstein changed the (previously) very cool pre-titles sequence.

Who knows what else has been written out and what affect (positive or negative) that will have on the quality of the final picture? Only heavy promotion (over 100 hours) on the worldwide MTV network and a title song by Garbage will help Bond appeal to earth's newest generations.

Thinky's interesting side note: John Cleese (Monty Python's Flying Circus), who plays Q's assistant in the upcoming The World is Not Enough, looks to have made a long term commitment to the Bond franchise. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cleese has signed for three more Bond films playing the same role. It should also be noted that Cleese is not replacing the 85-year-old Desmond Llewelyn who told the trade that his stay on the series is "up to the Almighty." Cleese's character has an official name, R.