There have been plenty of rumblings about who could take on the next Bond installment now that Sam Mendes has “retired” from the franchise. Danny Boyle and Yann Demange’s names were batted around last month, but with insiders informing Variety that MGM is looking for a “big name” to helm the new chapter, the Steve Jobs director appeared to have the advantage. Now Boyle himself is talking up his Bond 25 directing gig, telling Metro U.S. that he’s also “working on a script right now.”
The script, which Boyle is working on with frequent collaborator John Hodge, is the deciding factor right now: “It all depends on that really.” While he has another project in the works—“I am working on a Richard Curtis script at the moment”—the Trainspotting director says they “hope to start shooting that in 6 or 7 weeks. Then Bond would be right at the end of the year. But we are working on them both right now.” When pressed for specifics, all Boyle would day is “we’ve got an idea, John Hodge, the screenwriter, and I have got this idea, and John is writing it at the moment. And it all depends on how it turns out. It would be foolish of me to give any of it away.”
Metro U.S. caught up with Boyle at a premiere of his FX anthology series, Trust. In the midst of promoting their take on the infamous Getty kidnapping, Trust writer Simon Beaufoy, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire, gave Boyle his vote for next Bond director. “I don’t know why he hasn’t done one before. I think it’s meant to be,” Beaufoy said, though he warn that there could be some scheduling issues due to the Boyle-Curtis project at Universal.