Bond Is Going To Evolve

By MI6 Staff

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Sam Mendes, who directed 'Skyfall' and 'SPECTRE' doubts he will be asked back in the future to helm another James Bond film.

"I don’t think they’d want me anymore. It was an incredible thing to do at that moment in my life; I couldn’t have asked for a better thing. I saw the world in a different way,” he told Deadline of making 'SPECTRE' and 'Skyfall' — especially 'Skyfall', he admitted. Making the Bond films, he said, was like being an engineer as much as a director. "It’s like erecting scaffolding and building an entire world…," he said. "It’s exhausting, in a different way."

As MI6 has reported in the past, relations between producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson became strained during the production of 'SPECTRE', although Wilson was largely absent day-to-day due to health issues. The signs that all was not well began at the kick-off press conference when Mendes publicly joked that this is where "budgets go to die." Sony were trying to reduce the scope of the film's expenses. It was the most expensive Bond film made to date. When everything was wrapped, Mendes pulled out of most of the publicity work for the film.

But he has sympathy for the producers in what happens next, especially with Marvel raising the bar and Daniel Craig's image on the role being so dominent on the public consciousness. "I don’t envy Barbara having to follow Daniel’s five movies. He reinvigorated the franchise but the franchise is so huge that it’s very difficult for a younger actor to step into that.”

We’re you actually told they didn’t need you anymore?

"Let me rephrase that," said Mendes. "I think that the actor playing Bond is going to evolve, the director has to evolve. I think it would be wonderful to see a woman directing Bond. I think it would be wonderful."