Mexican government allegedly paid Sony millions to change the script of the next 007 movie

Daniel Craig and Monica Bellucci on set of 'Spectre'
(Image credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

In an effort to secure as much as $20 million worth of tax incentives from the Mexican government, executives at Sony allegedly asked that the script for Spectre, the next movie in the 007 franchise, be altered to include more pro-Mexico elements.

The alleged changes requested by the Mexican government were relatively sweeping: a new setting (a Day of the Dead celebration, replacing a non-geographically specific cage match); a change in the ethnicity of an assassination target (an international leader, replacing a Mexican leader), as well as the assassin himself, who could not be Mexican; a series of shots designed to highlight Mexico City's modern skyline; and an insistence on casting a Mexican woman as one of Spectre's Bond girls. (Stephanie Sigman, the first Mexico-born Bond girl, was cast earlier this week.)

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.