You know what, I certainly wouldn’t bet a large sum against that happening!
I suspect that once Craig steps down, it’s a done deal for Nolan to do a very soft reboot with a new bond who’s selection he gets a say in. Personally I’d love to see Nolan direct Craig, but Nolan seems set on waiting until he can ‘reboot’.
Villineuve‘s rise has given Eon an option in terms of a big name who’s keen and would do a great job and they’re probably meeting to work out how to best accommodate both him and Nolan.
The best outcome for eon and Craig is villinueve doing 25 so they can allow Nolan his casting wish and soft reboot on 26, but Dune would appear to make that near impossible.
It’s unlikely, but if Craig wants to work with villinueve that badly (and I imagine he does), then perhaps he’ll sign up for bond 26 so that villinueve can do dune and then bond and Nolan can start afresh with his new bond thereafter. Not ideal, but who knows.
At the very least the future’s looking very bright with both Nolan and villinueve on the roster.
Who knows? Some years ago Nicolas Winding Refn was the next big thing in directors, and Kathryn Bigelow too. 2019 is still quite some time in the distance, BOND 26 even more so…
Attended Casino Royale in Concert yesterday at The Royal Albert Hall. David Arnold was there and provided a 30 minute Q&A session before the film, no mention of scoring Bond 25 or any other Bond production for that matter. Firmly focussed on discussing his work around CR. Didn’t even catch a hint at him potentially scoring another, but that might be all part of the plan.
Imo Arnold’s had his day. I loved his scores as well as his pre-bond bond album, shaken and stirred. But now they’re going for prestige directors it’ll be the director’s prerogative to choose the composer, i imagine.
So a better guide would be the composers those directors have relationships with.
E.g. Zimmer will no doubt score Nolan’s inevitable Bond.
Shaken and Stirred is a classic by now, I listen more often to this than I do most soundtracks. Maybe that’s why I’d rather have Arnold do a volume II of that than a new score.
Saw Casino Royale in concert on Sunday. Arnold played the James Bond theme over the end credits on his guitar. The whole performance was incredible! I’d welcome him back to Bond 25 in a heartbeat.
What are the chances we hear any concrete news regarding the director of Bond 25? Is the end of this year too optimistic?
Some hope for some kind of news on 5th October, could be. But maybe even end of this year is too much to hope for. There will be a reason things are progressing so relatively slowly…
Damn it all to hell. This limbo period is infuriating. It’s the rights business, isn’t it? I wish they would just announce who the new distributors are and release some concrete news.
To be honest, your guess is as good as mine. Could be the distribution business is what’s taking them so long, could be waiting for a director currently wrapped into some other project. Could even be they are trying to convince some actor - not Craig, evidently - that BOND 25 is going to be the cat‘s pyjamas and that they absolutely must come aboard.
We‘ll probably really only going to know once there is actual news.
It is possible, and I wouldn’t complain as I love Skyfall and SPECTRE so would be intrigued by what Mendes would do with a finale for Craig’s Bond, however I think it’s the studio side of things that’s responsible for the longer wait.
I adore Skyfall and like Spectre but I don’t want Mendes back for Bond 25.
I just feel like we need new blood to make this film outstanding. Villeneuve is top of my list.
Holy crap. Kind of unrelated, but I forgot that Global James Bond Day is October 5. Which is when I’m getting married next year. My fiancee is never going to believe I didn’t plan this.