Sony Pictures and the producers of the 22nd James Bond adventure, Quantum of Solace, have unveiled plans to release the highly anticipated film in the U.K. Oct. 31, one week before its scheduled North American launch Nov. 7.

Audiences in France, Belgium, the Philippines, Jordan, Oman and Bahrain will get their first taste of Solace Nov. 5. The flick will then unspool in the Netherlands, Germany and Greece, among other countries, Nov. 6 before finally hitting the U.S. and Canada, as well as Spain, Italy and Brazil, a day later.

Gemma Arterton, who will be seen in the upcoming James Bond film 'Quantum of Solace', is to play the lead role in the new BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'.

Joining Arterton in the drama are Hans Matheson ('The Virgin Queen', 'Dr Zhivago') as Tess' seducer Alec, Eddie Redmayne ('Elizabeth: The Golden Age') as her love Angel and Jodie Whittaker ('Venus') as Tess' best friend Izzy.

Filming begins this month in the West Country in the UK

Carole Bouquet is the former Bond girl (Melina Havelock) and Chanel model whose life is a source of constant fascination in her native France. She captivated Gérard Depardieu, had her phone bugged by François Mitterand and was recently accused of having an affair with President Sarkozy. Here the actress talks candidly about drugs, powerful men and her new-found political activism.

The opening sequence of the new Bond movie will be the longest yet, stretching to 30 minutes before the credits appear.

Daniel Craig has spent three months filming a chase scene in Panama for Quantum Of Solace.

A Bond insider said: "It will be full-on action from the first second. Craig leaps from a Harrier jump jet into a speedboat and ends up in his Aston Martin. There is also a fight between helicopters. "It is the big set-piece to rival the chase when Craig was up on the top of the crane in the last Bond movie."

Until now the longest pre-credit sequence of a Bond movie was 14 minutes in 1999's The World Is Not Enough.

Last July, Ian Fleming's estate went looking for someone to write a new James Bond novel in honor of the late author's 100th birthday this year. They found Sebastian Faulks, the English author perhaps best known for the novel Charlotte Gray, which was eventually made into a Cate Blanchett movie in 2001. Faulks' mission was to pick up the 007 tale back where Fleming had left it in his last Bond book, Octopussy and the Living Daylights, which was published posthumously in 1966. "The idea," Faulks told EW.com last summer, when the deal was announced, ''was that it should read as though Fleming had written it.'

Now, Faulks' Bond novel, titled Devil May Care and credited to ''Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming,'' is ready for worldwide release on May 28 — the day on which Fleming would have turned 100. Plot details are under embargo, but EW.com has this exclusive sneak peek of the jacket art. Take a look. The shadowy, well-coiffed, and tuxedo-ed James Bond figure on the spine seems to indicate Bond fans could be in for an old-school treat.

What is “Quantum of Solace”? James Bond screenwriter Paul Haggis might not have any idea, but if MGM was kind enough to cc him on their latest press release, the Oscar-winner will gain a drool-inducing insight into the film’s plot, right alongside the rest of us.

Below is the spankin’ new, studio-approved plot summary of Bond’s 22nd flick. Does it leave you shaken, or stirred? Oh, and at the risk of sounding like a cheesy guy in an IROC is driving past us: “Spoiler alert!”

“‘Quantum of Solace’ continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in ‘Casino Royale.’ Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal.

Fans have been invited to vote for the next James Bond theme.

Before the spy returns in movie form later this year, an audio book about Bond’s adventures is being released, and publishers Penguin are inviting people to vote for their favourite theme.

Musicians have been invited to submit ideas via Myspace.com/devilmaycarebook, and from Monday (March 3) fans will be invited to to vote for a week for the theme they want from a shortlist.

The book is the new Bond novel written by Sebastian Faulks. The winning theme will be announced on March 17 ahead of the book’s publication on May 28.