Finally someone asked Christopher Nolan about directing the next Bond. It hasn’t really been asked at all in the interviews Nolan has given in promoting “Oppenheimer.”
The wonderful Josh Horowitz, via his Happy Sad Confused podcast, told Nolan that he bet $20 that he’d be the next director to helm a Bond film. Here’s what Nolan said:
I love those movies. The influence of those movies in my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. It would be an amazing privilege to do one. At the same time, when you take on a character like that you’re working with particular set of constraints. So it’s a kind of responsibility I also felt very much when taking on Batman.
As for whether he’d have any say in who would play the next Bond, Nolan says that he’d need to be part of the casting process:
You wouldn’t want to take on a film without being fully committed with what you bring.
Now, whether Bond producer Barbara Broccoli is willing to give Nolan the creative freedom to take over her beloved franchise is a whole other story. She’s rather a stickler when it comes to interfering with her vision.
I’m willing to bet that, after “Oppenheimer,” Nolan probably wants his next film to be a bit more commercially accessible. Bond would be the obvious choice. As he said, he’s a major fan of the films, especially the Sean Connery ones, and he’d be a perfect fit.
A few years ago, we came very close to having Christopher Nolan directing Bond. He even admitted to having spoken to Bond producers about the gig.
Nolan had been developing the story with Bond writers Purvis and Wade, who were tasked to write the new film while Nolan was finishing “Oppenheimer”.
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.