For director Sam Mendes, Once Was Not Enough.
Sounds like a 007 film title doesn’t it?
Mendes and Daniel Craig return for Spectre, the follow-up to the billion dollar box-office hit Skyfall. With two James Bond missions on his dossier, the director joins an elite fraternity.
Is this the continuation of a new run within the 007 franchise. Sam Mendes won rave reviews for Skyfall and expectations are at an All-Time High (thanks Rita Coolidge) as Bond faces his greatest enemies in Spectre.
To celebrate the second mission for Mendes and return of Ian Fleming’s most evil creation, here’s a look back at incredible runs by directors within the 007 franchise:
Several directors have answered the call to direct more than one James Bond movie. Terence Young introduced 007 and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. when he helmed the first two films in the series: Dr. No and From Russia, With Love (my all-time favorite) then took a break but returned for Thunderball where we saw more S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agents and inner workings of the criminal cabal.
Guy Hamilton directed Goldfinger, the film that you could say became the gold standard blueprint for future 007 adventures. Hamilton didn’t return until Sean Connery’s final (yes, I’m not including Never Say Never Again) film, Diamonds Are Forever (the final appearance of Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) and kicked off the Roger Moore era with Live and Let Die then The Man With the Golden Gun.
Lewis Gilbert directed Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (featuring the first on-screen appearance of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), leader of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) and Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
The director with the most 007 movies on his resume: John Glen (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights and License to Kill). Glen completed the Roger Moore era and helmed Timothy Dalton’s two 007 films. When you add Glen’s second unit director/editor duties on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker you could call him a behind the scenes MVP of the 007 series.
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. leader Blofeld (is he or isn’t he?) makes a brief appearance in the pre-credits sequence of For Your Eyes Only.
Martin Campbell ushered in two 007 eras by directing the James Bond relaunches Goldeneye (Pierce Brosnan’s first ) and Casino Royale (Daniel Craig’s first.)
Now we have the Oscar-winning Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road, Jarhead) with Skyfall and now Spectre. Mendes and Daniel Craig share a love of James Bond films siting Live and Let Die and From Russia, With Love as favorites. It’s the Skyfall dream team ushering in S.P.E.C.T.R.E. giving the Connery era evil a modern twist.
Craig and Mendes have both hinted this may be their final Bond film but never say…oh I will stop myself there.
Spectre opens November 6th.
By Editor