No surprise, Sam Mendes doesn’t think he will be returning to the James Bond franchise. The 59-year-old director, who helmed 2012’s ‘Skyfall’ and 2015’s ‘Spectre,’ is now saying that coming back for a third movie is almost out of the question.
Speaking with Inverse, the filmmaker said: "Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it […] It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy."
Mendes adds that Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, are more interested in hiring a younger director to helm the next instalment in the series because they would be "more controllable.”
They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio.
It’s not like Mendes has the time to jump in for another Bond, he recently admitted that he’ll be busy working on his four Beatles movies until 2028.
There is currently no script, no title, not even a director for the next Bond. No setting has been chosen, no source material selected from the Ian Fleming novels or elsewhere. Broccoli will also be very busy come next year with her involvement in bringing Daniel Craig’s “Othello” to the big screen. We’re likely not looking at a new Bond going into production until, at least, 2026.
So, who jumps in as the next Bond filmmaker? It’s all rumors for now. Given the whole “controllable” thing, Christopher Nolan is practically out of the equation. Recent reports namechecked young-ish filmmakers such as Kelly Marcel, David Michod, Damien Chazelle, Bart Layton, and Yann Demange.
Cory Finley, a talented filmmaker, has directed three films so far: "Thoroughbreds" (2017), "Bad Education” (2020), and "Landscape with Invisible Hand.”