A source inside of Amazon/MGM is telling The InSneider that the studio is eyeing producer David Heyman to steer the ship for the next generation of Bond, and he wants to take one particular director along for the ride.
The source believes that if Heyman does, officially, come aboard to produce Bond for Amazon/MGM then none other than Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón would be his first pick as director of Bond 26.
What this rumor seems to imply is that Amazon/MGM are not willing to wait another year for Christopher Nolan to complete “The Odyssey.” Hey, the studio spent over $1 billion to toss Barbara Broccoli aside, it’s no wonder they want to get this next Bond off the ground — I don’t blame them, but fair warning, patience is a virtue and Nolan should be their #1 target.
Regardless, it turns out that Cuarón had already been offered to direct Bond back in the aughts, but was turned off once he found out that there would be a separate Broccoli-approved team shooting the action (via Variety).
“Ages ago I was offered a Bond film,” he revealed. “And I said, ‘Yeah, cool. Maybe Bond. I am going to do one.’ And then when the process started and I was going to shoot all the dialogue and stuff, there was a [separate] team doing all the action scenes. It kind of felt very weird.”
Heyman and Cuarón have a history together — it was the latter who directed for Heyman what is still considered to be the best and most visually accomplished ‘Harry Potter’ movie — that would be 2004’s ‘Prisoner of Azkaban.’ They also both collaborated on Cuarón‘a “Gravity.
It was also Herman who tried to persuade Cuarón to direct a ‘Fantastic Beasts’ movie after “Gravity,” but the filmmaker eventually backed out of the project as he didn’t want to make that film immediately after the equally VFX-heavy “Gravity.”
Heyman, who has championed auteur filmmaking his entire career, has three films he produced set for release this year, Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun” and Andrew Patterson’s “Rivals of Amziah King.” As far as film productions go, there’s nothing on tap for Heyman save for next year’s shoot of “Wonka 2.”
Meanwhile, Cuarón is coming off the Apple TV series “Disclaimer,” but he actually hasn’t directed a film since 2018’s “Roma”; he’s due to hop onboard something in the coming months. Will it be Bond 26? Quite frankly, I’d love that.
Cuarón’s reputation precedes him; he’s one of the great and most talented filmmakers of the 21st Century with notable films such as “Children of Men,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “Gravity.” He’s also not been scared to work within the studio system, with big budgets, so this latest Bond rumor isn’t a stretch.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.