AWAY WE GO, 007
- By Devin Faraci
- Published 01/5/2010
- News
It looks like James Bond 23 has a director, and it's a very unexpected one at that - Sam Mendes.
According to the Heat Vision Blog, Mendes is in talks to direct the next Bond film, which could be shooting as soon as June with a 2011 release date. This is on the heels of news that the film was being delayed (possibly by MGM's death throes), but I guess that's not the case anymore. And I guess that the good people at EON are not making obvious choices anymore, either. After all, Mendes is not known as an action director - but he is known as something of an auteur (sort of), which has never appealed to the folks behind the Bond franchise before. See, they prefer directors who will take direction from the producers, and it's hard to imagine that Mendes will do that.
Or maybe he will. Revolutionary Road, his Oscar-bait from 2008, didn't go anywhere, and while I really loved Away We Go, the film didn't set the box office on fire, even for a small indie. So maybe Mendes will be happy to do whatever the Broccolis tell him to do with their cash cow character.
And while Mendes is a truly weird choice, it's not out of left field. Remember how surprised we all were when Marc Forster was announced for Quantum of Solace? Of course that turned out to be really mediocre (and which wasn't helped by being compared to the very excellent Casino Royale). Maybe we'll end up with a Lars von Trier Bond yet.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by Joey D)
Away We Go was really great, emotionally impactful (if a bit episodic). And Revolutionary Road I liked quite a bit. Not sure about this, though...
Comment #2 (Posted by Stew)
I would see a von Trier directed Bond flick in a heartbeat.
Comment #3 (Posted by Roy)
Hopefully this time, without a script crippled by the writer's strike, we get a worthy follow-up to Royale.
Comment #4 (Posted by an unknown user)
I for one welcome this news. I'm a huge Bond fan and have appreciated seeing the styles shift from one film to the nex (to varying degrees of success). Harry Potter can do it, and so can Bond. Historically speaking the directors of the older Bond movies (Guy Hamilton, Terrence Young, John Glen etc) never came from action film backgrounds either so I am interested to see Mendes play with a big sandbox. Now if only we'll get to see Quantum supplant SPECTRE as the biggest thorn in MI-6's side. Bring on the giant tankers/submarines/Q Gadgets/hot women/fast cars/ethnic henchmen/double entendres/goofy names etc etc
Comment #5 (Posted by Phil Dean)
Mendes is an interesting dude. I'd be more interested in seeing his version of Preacher, though.
Comment #6 (Posted by an unknown user)
hell yeah thats awesome...and as a huge bond fan i have to say even though quantam of solace was not better than casino royale, it was the bond with the most flair and danger, which is refeshing for the series
Comment #7 (Posted by an unknown user)
Quatum of Solace is a perfect companion to Casino Royale. It is an assumption that each movie had to be self contained. There was no law that said they had to be. It's a building storyline. I don't know why it is met with negativity.
Comment #8 (Posted by Brian)
What matters here is if he can get Roger Deakins to shoot it for him.
That'd be fan-fucking-tastic.
Though Roger still has a bad action taste in his mouth from the Siege, I believe.
Comment #9 (Posted by The Dude)
And after von Trier how about Llloyd Kaufman?
Comment #10 (Posted by an unknown user)
Does this mean Kate Winslet comes along for the ride?
Comment #11 (Posted by Solace Of Quantum)
Quantum Of Solace is fantastic. I didn't think so the first time I saw it, but gave it another day in court on DVD. If you saw it once and were underwhelmed, watch it again. No, it isn't Casino Royale, but it actually has better pacing (which I know is why annoying people call it "more Bourne than Bond". It really isn't). Can't wait to see where they take it from here...
Comment #12 (Posted by Sam Van Haren)
I am with Phil Dean on this one. Also does this mean he is no longer directing Preacher at all? I think that Preacher needs a great drama director and Mendes' take-no-shit attitude would be perfect for Preacher. For Bond I thought the rumor for Danny Boyle to direct the next installment was interesting.
Comment #13 (Posted by allfather sarcasm)
so... he's off preacher? did i miss a meeting?
Comment #14 (Posted by Kevin)
Why don't they go hire Marc Forster again? He killed Casino Royale in every way. I loved Solace, but only as a continuation of the former, not as its own film. Forster got it. I can't think of a more impactful recent action sequence than the construction site's from Casino. I guess I can't figure out why they're bothering messing with a good thing. Am I crazy?
Comment #15 (Posted by Kevin)
Uhm, Martin Campbell even. Sorry about that.
Comment #16 (Posted by PlanBFromOuterSpace)
Mendes did "Road to Perdition" and "Jarhead" also, didn't he? Why hasn't anyone mentioned his work on those? While neither are straight-up action flicks (particularly in Jarhead's case), they're hardly movies about people sitting there talking about their feelings the whole time. They were well-acted, had good action sequences, were shot beautifully ("Perdition" won an Oscar for cinematography), and performed very well. This would also be Mendes' second collaboration with Daniel Craig, who was less than a household name back in the "Perdition" days.
Comment #17 (Posted by an unknown user)
agree with #7 comment BIG TIME...QoS is the only Bond film to work as a companion piece and easily has the best action of any, slightly excluding royale
Comment #18 (Posted by johny depth)
maybe we'll get some emotion and substance out of the characters instead of plot devices and orgasms :)
Comment #19 (Posted by AnimalStructure)
Quantum was the best Bond film since Licence to Kill. Yeah, that's right, I said it.
The series has not been the same since Dalton left, but Quantum was a nice little hit of the true Bond.
Comment #20 (Posted by MintRoyale)
I'm seeing the Mendes/Craig connection from Perdition in this. I wonder if EON just up and asked Craig who he wanted as boss man.
Comment #21 (Posted by Jonathan)
Dude, can he do action? I mean, when Kevin Spacey got his head blown off in American Beauty, I GUESS that counts as an action scene. If you're a strange-o. And no, Road TO Perdition DOESN'T count. But then we didn't think Forster could do action, and I GUESS he kinda did. Although Forster cut the crap out of those scenes. And QOS was too damn short and nonsensical. Which means it was like just about every other action film in the last 15 years or so. I've got it! QOS was a remake of the Cindy Crawford movie FAIR GAME! I'VE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!
Comment #22 (Posted by PlanBFromOuterSpace)
Comment #21- Did you even SEE "Road to Perdition"? I didn't say it was a straight-up action movie, but it had some action sequences in it. There was a hotel shootout that was done pretty well, and it was just a pretty violent movie in general, Daniel Craig's death being particularly swift and brutal. Mendes, who hadn't directed too many films at the time, gave us a very different Tom Hnaks than we'd been used to.
