Back in June, Amazon/MGM announced that Denis Villeneuve would realize his life’s dream by signing on to direct the next James Bond movie. Steven Knight is writing the script.
Villeneuve reportedly beat out several filmmakers who were in the running for the job, including Edward Berger, Edgar Wright, and Paul King. Berger has now addressed losing the Bond directing role to Villeneuve — and it’s clear he had his heart set on it.
I'm a lifelong Bond fan, but unfortunately Denis is also, and that’s fine. If you can’t do a Bond film then you want to give it to Denis. That’s probably the only filmmaker. It’s in great hands.
As far as major studio filmmakers taking on the 007 franchise, Villeneuve’s hiring was as good of a choice as one should expect — the only other more viable candidate might have been Christopher Nolan.
No offense to Berger, who did wonders with “Conclave,” but he wasn’t the right man for the job. A Villeneuve-directed instalment has me excited about Bond for the first time in eons.