James Bond will travel to Croatia in the 25th instalment of the 007 franchise.

The film has the working title Shatterhand and the plot sees Daniel Craig's spy battle a blind supervillain.

Scriptwriters are believed to be basing parts of the plot on the 1999 thriller Never Dream Of Dying by US author Raymond Benson, who also wrote Bond books Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough.

(Image: Getty Images)

The novel opens with a police raid on a French movie studio that goes badly wrong, while an actress with a sordid past leads Bond to his final target.

A source said: "Bond scriptwriters feel it could be the perfect follow-up to Spectre. They are hoping to film in Croatia next year."

The insider said producers had been furious when a local mayor revealed they had been scouting for locations in the coastal tourist hotspot of Dubrovnik.

(Image: Sony Pictures)

The film is hotly anticipated after Craig's unconfirmed U-turn on quitting as 007. The 49-year-old star is set to return for his fifth stint despite declaring he would rather slash his wrists than play the secret agent again.

Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista will be reprising their roles as Spectre villains after provisionally agreeing to do the next blockbuster.The film is scheduled to hit cinemas in November 2019, with the script taking inspiration from 1960s 007 outings You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Other expected locations include the south of France and Japan.

Skyfall, Craig's third Bond film, became the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK after its release in 2012, but it has since been toppled by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

James Bond will battle sinister 'Union'

In Raymond Benson’s Never Dream of Dying, bond battles a blind criminal genius behind an evil organisation called the Union.

The action kicks off in the south of France where a police raid ends up killing innocent people.

A dead man’s jail confession puts 007 on the trail of the bad guys. He starts a relationship with a film star called Tylyn Mignonne whose husband just happens to be connected to the Union.

Our hero has an underwater brush with death, a chase through the wilds of Corsica, a surprise encounter with an old friend - and a showdown with the blind baddie.