James Bond 25: Three Directors Emerge as Front Runners
James Bond is heading back to the big screen and with Daniel Craig rumoured to be returning to the role, thoughts have naturally turned to who will oversee the action.
According to Deadline, there are three front runners and no, one of them isn’t Christopher Nolan. With Sam Mendes stepping down from directorial duties after Skyfall and Spectre, the three candidates are Blade Runner 2049’s Denis Villenueve, Hell or High Water’s David MacKenzie and ‘71’s Yann Demange – a relative newcomer to feature films.
Of the three, Denis Villenueve is the most experienced and is currently riding a critical and commercial wave following the success of the likes of Arrival, Prisoners, and Sicario – and that’s not to mention just how impressive Blade Runner 2049 looks.
David MacKenzie really announced himself with Hell or High Water, a smart, exhilarating thriller cut from the same cloth as some of the best cinema of the 70s while Demange – the least experienced of the three – has emerged as the surprise front runner thanks to ’71, an incendiary action thriller starring Jack O’Connell, Demange seems to have quickly earned Hollywood’s respect with his next directorial gig the 2018 crime drama White Boy Rick, starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
What’s surprising is that the director seems to be slotting into place before a distribution partner has been found, meaning that the choice could very well impact upon who out of Sony, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, and Annapurna Pictures land the 007 prize.
The Untitled 25th James Bond movie will arrive in cinemas in November 2019.
