Director Gossip
14th July 2024
Fresh names are being touted as possible directors of Bond 26
By MI6 Staff
Unbeknownst to most media outlets covering the series, it has always been the case that a director is hired before casting a new James Bond actor starts. This is why talk of candidates to replace Daniel Craig is merely that; nothing will happen without a production green-light and a director attached.
All ears to the ground then about who may take up the chair for the 26th James Bond film...
One name that is often touted is Denis Villeneuve, who was considered for 'No Time To Die' after Danny Boyle bailed from the project. The Canadian filmmaker was busy with his passion project 'Dune,' and that property may have ruled him out once more. Warner Bros. recently announced that Villeneuve would be directing a film to be released on December 18th, 2026. The trades suspect this will be 'Dune: Messiah' (the third entry), although he previously stated he wanted to make a different film in between outings. Villeneuve also has a nuclear war film set up at Legendary.
An outsider to the usual tabloid list of Hollywood directors is German filmmaker Edward Berger who saw recent success with 'All Quiet on the Western Front' that he wrote, directed, and produced. The film won four Academy Awards and seven BAFTAS, making it the most successful foreign language film ever. His next release is 'Conclave' starring Ralph Fiennes and 'The Ballad of a Small Player' starts filming soon with Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton for Netflix.
Internet tipster Jeff Sneider recently named Australian director David Michod. He is a bit of an oddball candidate given his recent success 'War Machine' was a comedy, 'The King' was a historical drama, and his upcoming film 'Wizards!' is described as a stoner comedy.
Another curveball candidate from the same source was Kelly Marcel, who was behind the screenplays of all three 'Venom' movies and recently graduated to director on the third film 'The Last Dance' - out in October. Born in London, she started her career as an actor on several UK television series. On the back of these rumours, Deadline Senior Film Reporter Justin Kroll took to Twitter to state: "All I’m gonna say on BOND is this, producers have had no filmmakers meetings with any potential candidates yet," and then later followed up with "For whatever reason, this rumor ramped up in recent days and I made calls and according to people close to process no serious meetings about who will direct next Bond have happened in recent months."