The big news this past week was that the Bond franchise would be moving forward, once again, without a director who had crafted a hit film in the franchise. Sam Mendes, who turned out Skyfall that exceeded most people’s expectations of what a Bond film could be, is walking away due to commitments to other projects in the theatre. It’s understandable, as he has an extensive history on the stage, and it’s a rarity in modern Bond films to have a director make more than one film in the franchise.
Martin Campbell is the last one to do so, having helmed Goldeneye before coming back into the fold to launch the modern Bond franchise in Casino Royale.
With Mendes out a new director is going to be chosen. Skyfall was such a rousing success on both commercial and critical levels that Daniel Craig will be back, Bond will have more adventures because the world isn’t going to save itself. The van ain’t a rocking thus people will needs to come a knocking; now it’s a matter of selecting the next person to direct the oldest franchise in Hollywood. But who’ll be up for the job?
That’s a huge question because being a Bond director comes with it a lot of caveats. You’re not going to be able to rewrite the script to suit your needs, of course, as the director is more of a cog in the machine than anything else in the franchise. There’s a certain look and feel to a Bond film that has to be met, of course, and doing a Bond film is like any blockbuster: it’ll take a lot of time and is expected to make a ton of money.
Plus you have Bond fans like me, who’ve seen every film and read the novel series, who expect a certain quality level to Bond films.
It’s understandable why a lot of directors wouldn’t want to take it on. Making a Bond film is something where you can’t recast in the middle of production, change up conventions or pull off a George Lucas special brand of rampant douche-cockery like “Jedi have lots of Midichlorians, that’s what powers the Force” type of shenanigan. It’s not like you can make a Bond film where he inexplicably bursts into freestyle rapping, taunting Hulk Hogan for some reason, as a tribute to Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
James Bond is James Bond, always saving the world for Queen and Country. There are certain codas Bond has to follow; one can imagine that plenty of directors would view the franchise as not something they’d be interested in because the creative and collaborative process could be considered limiting. There’s not a lot of wiggle room for taking the franchise in a number of interesting directions; it’s an action thriller shoehorned into the spy genre.
So who would tackle Bond 24 before it gets a Bond-type name? There are a lot of great directors who’d be perfect for the part … and others not so perfect. So, in the spirit of shenanigans and my overwhelming love of all things Bond, I thought I’d come up with a list of directors who’d be interesting picks for the part of “Next Bond Director.”
As always they come with two criteria and the caveat that I’m probably going to be wrong in who they pick:
1. Previously has helmed at least one true genre picture
Bond is a genre film, almost unto itself. Thus you need someone who’s done it before; no first-timers, no people that aren’t known.
2. Has either crafted an acclaimed, award-winning film or a massively successful blockbuster at least once before
When you bring in a guy like Sam Mendes in you raise the bar for the type of director who’ll follow up. It’s like buying a new car after having driven beaters for your entire life; afterwards you won’t go back to anything less. Kind of like Chris Rock’s bit from years ago about how men don’t move back sexually and women don’t move back in their lifestyle: once you’ve gone after an Academy Award winning director you aren’t going for “creative” picks anymore. Someone with creative or commercial juice is going to get selected.
3. Will probably not be picked
As always I’m usually wrong in these kinds of things, thus I’ll reserve the right to say that probably none of these will be picked for the spot.
The 10 Directors Who Should Direct Bond 24 … But Probably Won’t
10. Tyler Perry
The Justification: I know what you’re thinking; this is just another ploy to make a quick joke about Tyler Perry in drag as “M,” trying to get James Bond to give up his boozing and womanizing for some good Christian values. But oddly enough I’m not going to do that this week. Instead I’ll say this: when it comes to knowing your audience Tyler Perry has been one of the best directors around in recent years. A lot of people may not be fans of his work, myself included, but I’ll give him credit in that he knows exactly what his audience wants in a film he’s directed and delivers that. He’s always consistently under budget and has experience in all facets of the production game. He’d be a director that understands the big picture better than many and seeing what he’d do with the character would be an interesting one to say the least.
9. Michael Bay
The Justification – Bond films have changed over the last 15 years or so in that they went from spy thrillers with a “Bond-ian” formula, for lack of a better word, into a spy thriller with an exceptionally large budget. And if you’re going to craft a blockbuster why not go for the guy who essentially crafted the way we expect a $200 million film to look like? If there ever was a director who could transform Daniel Craig from being “the guy who plays James Bond” into a genuine movie star, ala Will Smith, Bay would be the guy to do so.
8. Ben Affleck
The Justification – He just crafted Argo, 2012’s best picture, and he’s on a nearly unprecedented run as a director. Out of the blue he resurrected his career with two Boston crime films and then was justly rewarded by the Academy. Affleck’s has shown that he’s good at getting into the dirt and finding a place in it that’s interesting. Spies are essentially just criminals with a government paycheck and seeing what Affleck would do with Bond is something I’d plunk down cash for.
7. Christopher Nolan
The Justification – Even though I wasn’t a fan The Dark Knight Rises I’ll concede that a lot of people were. And Nolan’s been on a streak of some note for a while, of course. He’s British, too, which is never a bad thing considering Bond is a Brit as well. Nolan’s dark take on Batman was special and Bond is getting darker to a degree in the new take on the character. Considering Skyfall aped The Dark Knight to an exceptional degree there’s precedent already.
6. Joe Carnahan
The Justification – You want Bond to get dirty you can call in Nolan. You want him wallowing in the mud, bloodied but loving it, you call Carnahan. He has experience in crafting big budget films and Carnahan has a good sensibility with characters. I’d love to see what he could do with the character, first and foremost, as the one thing I’ve enjoyed about Carnahan over the years is that he has a knack for the unique. It may not work out all the time but you know you’re in for something that’ll be interesting for a spell (if not longer).
5. Sylvester Stallone
The Justification – Once upon a time he wrote the greatest script for one of Hollywood’s greatest films in Rocky, directed a handful of good to great films and also starred in them. But what we haven’t seen is Stallone behind a camera for someone else’s franchise, not since Staying Alive tried to turn Saturday Night Fever into something more than just one great film. Stallone has an Oscar for writing and I’d love to see him get a crack at Bond as a writer/director.
4. Kathryn Bigelow
The Justification – We’ve never had a woman take on directing Bond and I’d like to see that changed from the Oscar winning director of The Hurt Locker. Bigelow has this knack of being able to find that point in the visceral nature of action films that makes them more accessible than they otherwise could be. Bond is inherently a bit sexist character and I’d like to see what Bigelow could do to help soften the edges a little bit on the character. We’re seeing Bond as a full character, not just an action hero/badass spy, and Bigelow could do unique things with the character of Bond I’m not sure others would want to. Bigelow’s done action before, and done it extraordinarily well, and her take on Bond could be exceptional.
3. Quentin Tarantino
The Justification – Absolutely no chance in hell he’d take on Bond but stranger things have happened. Tarantino has such a mind for film, and a reputation for quality, that his take on Bond would be one people would love to see. QT keeps coming up short in Oscars that matter, of course, but having a two-time winner for writing as well as an armful of nominations for directing is an impressive resume for anyone. Tarantino has a knack for finding interesting takes on genre material that his crafting of a spy thriller/action film would be something I’d like to see. He does so much great things with action sequences that getting him to do a Bond film would be fun. The way he sets up action is masterful. I’d love to see him direct a big opening Bond action sequence, for starters, as you know it’d be mind blowing. Plus if he gets final edit then hearing James Bond drop racial slurs would be worth the price of admission.
2. Michael Mann
The Justification – Mann’s been around for so long, and done so many great films, that there’s one thing he really hasn’t done as a director: join a franchise. Everything he’s done has been one-shots because he’s a one story kind of a guy. It’d be interesting to see what he would do dropped into the franchise with everything already established.
1. Danny Boyle
The Justification – Boyle’s the hatchet man of genre films; you can drop him into nearly any genre and he’s good enough to get you a good to great film nearly any time out. He even got a brilliant, Oscar-nominated performance out of James Franco. On a 1-10 scale of impossible that’s about a 12 or so, roughly, because Franco’s not really that good of an actor. If that doesn’t tell you how good he is behind the camera I don’t know what is; he’d probably turn out a really great Bond film, too.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s DVD – The Wire (Season 1)
If you haven’t seen this television show you should; it’s perhaps the greatest show ever put on television. Lasting five seasons on HBO, it follows crime and punishment in Baltimore from both sides of the equation. We get to see the cops trying to bring down Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), a pair of drug lords looking to do more with their illicit gains. Most prominent among the cops are Bunk (Wendell Pierce) and McNulty (Dominic West), a pair of homicide detectives with a hard-on to bring down the Barksdale gang. There are tons of ancillary characters and such, of course, but a good way to look at is like this:
If Game of Thrones is something you enjoy, then this is a gritty crime version of that.
It has the same sort of parallels in looking at the nature of power, albeit in a realistic urban environment as opposed to dragons & swords. It’s how I managed to watch a season of Thrones as a non-fantasy guy and enjoy it to a certain degree. It has a lot of the same parallels and similar storylines to a certain degree; both are about the nature of power in some aspects and but I prefer The Wire because it’s compelling television.
Recommended to an infinite degree.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Bass Ale and community college co-eds with low standards at the Alumni Club
The Call – Halle Berry is a 911 operator trying to catch a serial killer.
Skip it – It’s a WWE Film production, the same studio that gave you The Marine 3. Enough said.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone – Jim Carrey and Steve Carell have a magic contest in Vegas, baby.
See it – Carell and Buscemi as magicians is one thing but throw in Carrey as a Kriss Angel parody and you’re good enough to earn my money.
Spring Breakers – Four hot girls in bikinis rob a bank or something to finance Spring Break.
See It – Has that Middle Men kind of vibe to it.
Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @ScottSawitz .
