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: Continue reading SPECTRE And Directing JAMES BOND
After the billion dollar success of Skyfall, how do you top it?
Director Sam Mendes reveals why he returns for the 24th James Bond film and to expand the story he began.
“The reasons I’m doing the second Bond movie are the reasons I would do any movie, really, which is all to do with the story. And in this movie, SPECTRE, what you have is a movie entirely driven by Bond. He is on a mission from the very beginning,” he says. “It’s about whether or not to pursue the life he’s always pursued, whether he matters and is he going to continue or not. And you’re going to have to come to see the movie to find out whether he does.”
In the new interview via 007.com the director gives more insight on the story and we see footage of Daniel Craig as James Bond in action.
Sam Mendes will not return for James Bond 24. I named the Oscar winning director of Skyfall the Best Franchise Savior in My Geek Oscars.
The director of the next Bond film has a daunting task after the huge critical praise and billion dollar box office success of Skyfall. Mendes set the next 007 film up for success with his introduction of a new M, Miss Moneypenny and a new Q. The next Bond film has all the trappings even screenwriter John Logan is back to pen the new adventure. Who should direct the next James Bond film?
Let’s eliminate the obvious choice. Christopher Nolan has said he would not consider taking on 007 unless there was an opportunity to start fresh with a new actor in the role. Daniel Craig is keeping the tux.
Sam Mendes will not return to direct the next James Bond film. (Sigh)
“It has been a very difficult decision not to accept Michael and Barbara’s very generous offer to direct the next Bond movie,” the director told Empire. “Directing Skyfall was one of the best experiences of my professional life, but I have theatre and other commitments, including productions of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and King Lear, that need my complete focus over the next year and beyond.”
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Keri Russell will play the female lead in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes according to the Hollywood Reporter Heat Vision. Russell will join Jason Clarke and Kodi-Smit McPhee on the sequel directed by Matt Reeves. Andy Serkis reprises his role as Caesar. (Russell has been kicking butt on The Americans and in Dark Skies.)
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“They’re back!” Gil Kenan (Monster House, City of Ember) will direct a remake of Poltergeist according to Deadline. Sam Raimi is producing the MGM remake of the horror classic by Tobe Hooper. (The original freaked me out as a kid!)
At the end of 007 movies the final line is “…James Bond will return.”
Will Skyfall director Sam Mendes return for duty on Bond 24?
Here’s the mission briefing:
John Logan (who wrote the Skyfall script with Robert Wade and Neal Purvis) is writing the script for the next film. Early reports were that Continue reading SKYFALL Director Will Return?
Will the Academy recognize the powerful performances and amazing talents behind 2012’s big sci-fi and comic book (I’m including James Bond because I love him and why not) based films? Here are my films, stars, creators that should be nominated plus some of my own geeky categories:
Best Picture: The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Skyfall
Best Actor: Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Rian Johnson
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Caine, The Dark Knight Rises Javier Bardem, Skyfall Michael Fassbender, Prometheus
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises Emily Blunt, Looper
Skyfall may be the best 007 movie ever. Sam Mendes has crafted a passionate homage to 50 years of Bond films while creating his own epic that propels the super spy into the future. This adventure is thrilling and emotionally gripping.
A list of deep cover agents is lost. M and MI6 are humiliated then attacked. Bond is left for dead. The spy resurrects himself when the mission gets personal.
Daniel Craig completely owns Bond now. His 007 is a cool, confident, clever killer with a ruthlessness in the field and in the bedroom. The creators let Craig take Bond into his past to see what made him the perfect recruit for MI6 and explore a part of Ian Fleming’s creation we’ve never seen on-screen.
Let’s just crown Javier Bardem as the new ultimate Bond villain! Silva brushes aside Auric Goldfinger, Doctor No and Rosa Klebb. The cyberterrorist has an M obsession and a fatal attraction to Bond. You can see shades of Red Grant, Hannibal Lecter, Anton Chigurh and the Joker madly swirling into Bardem’s performance. Just when you think you know Silva’s next move he violently switches stalking like a predator towards his endgame.
Let’s move on to the Bond girls.
Judi Dench is the silvery queen of steel as Bond’s boss. The villain’s plot is not grounded in destroying the world or money. It’s personal. M is under fire from an obsessed terrorist, an arrogant superior (superbly played by Ralph Fiennes) and an onslaught of bureaucrats who want her to hang. Dench is perfection whether giving orders to leave an agent for dead, staring down government investigators or dodging bullets from the unhinged villain.
courtesy 007.com
Naomie Harris and Daniel Craig share some of the best on-screen chemistry since Sean Connery and Honor Blackman in Goldfinger. Eve is a gorgeous, resourceful field agent who is not just 007’s eye candy. She is crucial to his survival and future.
When 007’s adventure takes him to Shanghai and exotic Macao he encounters the exquisite Berenice Marlohe as Severine. The stunning French actress portrays the mysterious bad girl perfectly. Bond peels away the gorgeous layers of this haunted women tied to the villain.
Skyfall marks the welcome return of Q to the Bond series. This is not your father’s Quartermaster with an arsenal of impossible gadgets. Ben Whishaw portrays a young, snarky, brilliant computer genius with echoes of the Mark Zuckerberg seen in The Social Network and the biting wit of the classic Q (the late Desmond LLewelyn.)
James Bond jets from Istanbul to Shanghai to Macao to the London Underground to an island of the dead with thrilling chases, fights, seductions, and revelations. 007 changes the game and the action hits home when he lures the villain to the Scottish Highlands for a brutal version of The Most Dangerous Game. The climax is action and emotion packed with pitch perfect performances by Craig, Dench, Bardem and a scene stealing Albert Finney.
Let’s bow to Sam Mendes now. You can sense the director’s love and knowledge of the franchise. Mendes and writers John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade fill Skyfall with clever winks with classic lines, moments and icons of the series. You can enjoy the film as a 007 virgin but if you’re an obsessive like me you will absolutely delight in all the references to the Bond legacy. Mendes celebrates the past while creating a modern thriller that moves Bond into the future.
I can’t help but think but compare Daniel’s first and latest Bond films to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. Casino Royale was Bond Begins. Mendes has given us James Bond Rises in Skyfall. But this is not the end. James Bond will return.
A huge congratulations to the cast and crew of Skyfall. Ian Fleming, Albert Broccoli, Bernard Lee, Desmond LLewelyn and Lois Maxwell are raising their martinis to you.
James Bond journeys to Scotland in Skyfall. Bond’s father was Scottish. Sean Connery is Scottish. You see where I’m going?
A Sean Connery appearance in the latest 007 film for Bond’s 50th Annivesary?
Director Sam Mendes tells Huffington Post that there was a possibility of a Connery cameo.
“There was a definite discussion about that — way, way early on. But I think that’s problematic. Because, to me, it becomes too … it would take you out of the movie. Connery is Bond and he’s not going to come back as another character. It’s like, he’s been there. So, it was a very brief flirtation with that thought, but it was never going to happen, because I thought it would distract.”
Did Mendes and the producers make the right call?
A Bond fan confession: My first 007 film was Moonraker. I grew up on Roger Moore and one night while waiting for the ABC Sunday Night Movie with my dad – up comes the pre-credit sequence then title sequence for From Russia, With Love. I turned to my dad and asked “Who is Sean Connery?”
From Russia, With Love is now my all-time favorite 007 film. I love all the Bonds for what they are and what meant then and now.
I hope the franchise continues for decades and a kid may one day turn and ask “Who is Daniel Craig?”
