Future Bond Directors

Films
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Since CBN moved we no longer seem to have a thread dedicated to potential Bond directors, so i thought i’d kick one off…

Recently the ‘News onBond 25’ thread has been soaking everything up. Hopefully this thread can allow that one to focus upon 25.

I’ll kick this off with the obvious:

Chris Nolan

The inevitabilities of life: Death, taxes and Chris Nolan one day directing a Bond movie - is there really any way that this won’t happen?

However, i think he’ll want to wait until he can participate in recasting Bond. I’m sure he’d love to work with Craig, who’s fantastic in the part, but Nolan strikes me as someone who’ll want to stamp his own brand upon the franchise, so he’ll want a fresh start.

Personally i’m very excited to see what Nolan will do with Bond and like the idea of him being part of recasting, since he’s shown pretty good taste thus far in his movies, from Guy Pearce to Christian Bale and the host of unknowns in Dunkirk.

Denis V (fed up trying to remember the spelling)

With each movie he’s impressed me more. After Sicario i was sold, but after the magnificent masterpiece of Blade Runner 2049 i’m absolutely drooling at the prospect of a Denis V Bond movie.

I totally respect him for his candour in choosing Dune above Bond and to be honest i agree; Frank Herbert’s Dune is a literary masterwork that is ever timely while wars rage over oil in the Middle East.

However, Blade Runner’s poor box office may yet put the kibosh on his Dune movie, so he might be doing Bond sooner than he thought - who knows?

Denis V would no doubt bring Roger Deakins back to Bond and that is just as (if not more) exciting a prospect as any Director in this list.

David Mackenzie

Sure he’s on the list for Bond 25, but even if he fails to snag that gig i think he’ll be on the list for each successive Bond movie for some time after his impressive work on Starred Up and Hell or High Water.

That’s the obvious names, but there’s plenty more i can think of. However, i’ll leave it to you folk to throw your suggestions into the hat…

…Ok, there’s just one more name i want to add:

Shane Black

IMO he’s long been the best writer of action in the business: Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Good Night. Now he’s one of the best action Writer/Directors: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys and soon The Predator.

His work showcases intelligent, witty, never cheesy dialogue and plot and drama that knows where to put the enfaces to elicit the tensions and high stakes necessary, telling stories at once archetypal, yet original.

He was my dark horse favourite (or at least my fantasy choice) to get the Bond gig. But just perhaps that fantasy has taken a small, yet significant step towards one day being a reality…

Black and his writing partner Fred Dekker are currently rebooting The Avengers for TV. If this is greenlit and proves a success it’ll be hard for Eon not to entertain to idea of a Shane Black Written & Directed Bond movie. And that will be a sweet day.

Here’s the story
Shane Black is Writing A Reboot of the 1960s ‘The Avengers’ TV Show

Looking forward to hearing some Directorial names that i hadn’t heard, or thought of…

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Joe Wright
He has the kind of dramatic background that the producers seem to like and I’ve heard good things about his latest film Darkest Hour. However it was his 2011 action film Hanna that makes me think he was what it takes to deliver a great Bond film.

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By coincidence I studied fine art in London alongside him. He was quiet, good mannered and obviously intelligent. While I made plaster sculptures he was next door constructing a miniture town.

It’s great to see him do so well! I too was a fan of Hanna and thought of the Bond potential as I watched it. And Darkest Hour sounds like a real accomplishment. While there are other directors I feel are more suitable for Bond, as he may well agree, I would be very interested to see his more thoughtful take on the character.

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Interesting, I suppose we never know which of our classmates will go onto great things.
I have yet to watch Darkest Hour but I’m make sure it’s the next thing I see.

Here’s another one for you:
Susanne Bier
She has an eclectic body of work in her native Denmark and she did a great job with John le Carré adaptation The Night Manager for the BBC. Her name was passed through the rumour mill last year and in response she did express an interest in directing a Bond film.

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I enjoyed Night Manager, though ultimately found it fairly lightweight. But that’s an issue i have with the Beeb and their over-Produced micromanaged output; they used to say that TV is a writer’s medium, but these days in the UK it’s a Producer’s medium, showcasing their own tastes, hence everything on the Beeb looks the same.

It’s impossible to know whether Night Manager’s shortcomings were merely the result of BBC execs homogenising the show, or if they were also Bier’s tastes. Likewise it’s hard to know if Night Manager’s successes are down to Bier, or simply facilitated by the Beeb’s rigid house style.

Much of what really worked (imo) is owed to Hiddleston’s charm and Hollander’s acting chops. I thought she let Laurie chew far too much scenery. However in the context of Sunday night pulp telly a little scenery chewing is harmless fun.

So in short imo it’s impossible to glean Bier’s worthiness for Bond from a BBC show, with all of it’s house-style facilitation. She needs to show her calibre on something without the help or hindrance of a Beeb production.

I haven’t seen her Danish work - perhaps there are better signifiers therein.

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It’s not a Bond list, but perhaps a ‘thriller list’ is a good angle when hiring for Bond. Not all, but many of the names on this list would be decent choices for Bond.

Some are obvious, like Villeneuve, but others are left field and potentially very interesting.

Jeremy Saulnier

Blue Ruin was good and Green Room was excellent.

My personal dark horse face on the list is Jim Mickel

His movie Cold In July is imo an instant neo noir cult classic. I think he could do very exciting things with Bond.

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David Fincher - self explanitory

Ari Aster - new comer, but has a similar slick and meticulous style to Fincher even though his films are limited, which I think Bond needs

Paul Feige - Mostly from his work on A Simple Favor, which I got a strong Bondian vibe from, and which I think he would be very well suited to bring to the actual films

Tom Ford - another director of stylish thrillers, not to mention his prior relationship to Bond, which I’m surprised hasn’t lead to him being approached in the past

Tobias Lindholm - directed imho the strongest episodes of season 1 of Mindhunter

Jean-Marc Valee - Director of Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, both of which have visual and atmospheres similar to recent Bond outings, and who’s offbeat style I think would be very unique to see in Bond

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Mod note: topics merged

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Not sure he hasn’t been approached yet - it may just not yet have been the right occasion.

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I think he’d be a great choice. But be prepared for something far closer to QoS than any other Bond movie in the canon. He’d want to (and should) edit it as well. Being able to shoot and cut your own work well is a very rare thing - no greater stamp of a filmmaker, since they’re hands on in the creative process right through to picture lock. Sure other directors will argue that they’re in the edit, but like any art/craft much of work’s results is down the skill of the person manipulating the medium.

Valee has a truly avant garde style which may irk many a fan and casual watcher. Personally I say bring it on.

(edit: darned spellcheck turned Valee into a Vase. Well, i imagine they’re both equally fragile).

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Personally i don’t see Babs letting Curtis anywhere near Bond – in any capacity. But crazier things have happened i guess.

No disrespect to Curtis - he’s carved out quite the nice niche for himself and does that well. But that niche couldn’t be more disparate from Bond.

Nice to see them both doing their bit to help people, though :slight_smile:

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At one time you could have said that about Doctor Who as well but his 2010 episode ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ was one of the stand outs from that series and very different from his usual output.
That said I certainly don’t see Curtis directing a Bond film. If anything he’d be one of the writers brought on to polish the script.

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While I’ve always seen dr who and Sherlock as very similar - their actors interchangeable - aren’t dr who and bond just about as opposite as you could get?

Curtis is indeed a good fit for the Doctor’s amiable, light hearted spirit, but I think his preoccupation and expertise with awkward fops and middle class angst would derail a bond script, even in Moore’s. day

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Doctor Who runs a broad spectrum of tones from fun and adventurous to dark and scary. Curtis’s episode was actually more on the melancholy side as it dealt directly with Vincent van Gogh’s struggles with depression and the legacy of an artist who was never appreciated in his day. The scene where the Doctor takes Vincent to a modern day exhibition of his work was genuinely moving.
You may think Curtis seemed like a natural fit for Doctor Who but I don’t think anyone was expecting such a poignant story from him. Sometimes people surprise you.

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One from left field…

https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/tomb-raider/67323/ben-wheatley-to-direct-tomb-raider-sequel

Up to now, Wheatley’s films have had a huge cult following, but this will be his first major studio movie. He’s currently finishing off a new film adaption of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic novel Rebecca , starring Lily James and Armie Hammer, for Netflix.

If Wheatley makes his Tomb Raider a success both critically and financially (which is a mighty tall order) he’ll surely be firmly on Eon’s radar.

I’m probably the only person who didn’t like Kill List, but if I’m honest that’s probably because it works too well and gives me the proper willies!

I liked his version of High Rise (and that’s from a Ballard fan) and thought Free Fire was a smartly helmed bundle of fun. So I’m open minded on this - if his next movie Rebecca and in particular his first big studio movie Tomb Raider work, then I’d be ok with him on Bond. He’d certainly lend it some edge.

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You and me both! I was hanging on every turn of the movie, but the building sense of dread became almost unbearable by the end. A well made movie that I didn’t find very fun at all.

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Sam Esmail.

Why? Every single episode of “Mr. Robot”. And if you haven’t checked out the latest one, episode 5 of season 4, hurry up! It has almost no dialogue but one of the most tense and visually best filmed chase sequences through New York at Christmas time. Just magnificent.

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Seen it and couldn’t agree more. He’s a 21st century Carpenter/Cronenberg in the way he gets under the skin, but always in a fresh cool way.

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I wonder if Daniel Craig would push for Rian Johnson as a candidate after the (highly anticipated) success of Knives Out? Not that Craig would return, but it’s very obvious from recent interviews that he holds Johnson in very high regard.

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