Potentially some big news on the Bond front – hopefully some progress at the very least – since, according to Indiewire, Eon Productions are reportedly eying up Paul McGuigan for the director’s chair.
Bond films have struggled with preproduction for the past decade or so, with 4 years between the end of Brosnan and the beginning of Craig and another 4 years between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. Even another three years in between Skyfall and Spectre. You’d have thought that with a franchise this lucrative and consistent that their films would be more regular. Sadly this isn’t the case.
Bond 25 is in a turbulent stage – we don’t know who will have the distribution rights as it’s all in the midst of a bidding war; we don’t know for sure if Daniel Craig will accept the generous offer of £150 million to reprise the role for a further two films; we don’t know who else will appear (although Jeffery Wright has said he wants to come back as CIA agent Felix Leiter and Dave Bautista as Hinx…) and it’s unclear whether a story or script has been worked on (though we do at least know that veterans Robert Wade and Neil Purvis are on board to write the script, making this the 007th Bond film they’ve worked on) – but hopefully this news is a signal that progress is being made.
Paul McGuigan may lead Bond into his next adventure, which would certainly be a good sign that we can expect the new film in the next couple of years. McGuigan has apparently been of interest to the producers since they saw his upcoming film Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. He has previously directed films such as Lucky Number Slevin and Victor Frankenstein as well as episodes of Luke Cage and, most noteworthy, Sherlock (including A Scandal in Belgravia, one of my favourite episodes).
The latter is the most interesting since Sherlock is as central to British iconography and culture as Bond is. It’s a wonderful coincidence that the powerhouses behind Sherlock, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, are big Bond fans themselves and this can be seen frequently in the show. Even that scene in The Empty Hearse is not only reminiscent of Bond, but the shot is the same.
We can’t know for sure if this will come to light, but if so I’m confident McGuigan will be a worthy successor to Sam Mendes and it’ll be good to get this film going soon!