After Sam Mendes said in March that he didn’t want to direct the next Bond movie, Eon started drawing up names for the follow-up to Skyfall, with a new report from Variety suggesting that Nicolas Winding Refn, Ang Lee, Shane Black, Tom Hooper, and David Yates have emerged as candidates to direct Bond 24.
However, Deadline suggests that perhaps Sam Mendes has been persuaded to return, as he’s now said to be in talks to direct the next 007 movie.
The main reason he previously turned down the offer from Eon Productions producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson is said to be his obligation to direct a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stage musical in London’s West End. However, after the immense success of Skyfall, it is believed that the producers are willing to wait for Sam Mendes to complete his commitments to the stage play before moving forward with the next Bond movie.
Daniel Craig is set to reprise his role as James Bond, with Ralph Fiennes returning as M, Naomie Harris coming back as Eve Moneypenny, and Ben Whishaw returning as Q.
A lot of people thought it would many years before a filmed gross £100 million at the UK box office, and just a few months ago if you’d said the one to do it would be a Bond movie, most people would have simply laughed at you. However Skyfall has done just that, with Sony & MGM revealing that the Sam Mendes directed movie has now taken £100,460,679 in the UK and Ireland, becoming the first film to ever pass that milestone.
