It was only two days ago we reported director Danny Boyle had dropped out of directing the next James Bond film, over the old “everyone walks away clean” reason of creative differences. But there’s still a release date of November 2019 producers want to keep, which means the race is on to find a replacement.
Needless to say, with a ticking clock (production is still scheduled to begin in December), the new person needs to be brought in ASAP if the Bond trains are going to keep being shaken, not stirred, on time. And so Deadline reports on a possible scoop of the names being considered to take over for Boyle. One is Jean-Marc Vallée, whose Sharp Objects is currently on HBO and who, like Skyfall and Spectre’s Sam Mendes, would be new to the big-budget action spectacle game. Two others mentioned are David Mackenzie (Hell Or High Water), who knows his way around a tense shootout, and Yann Demange, crafter of nervy, violent period pieces ’71 and the upcoming White Boy Rick.
But arguably the most enticing name on the list is Edgar Wright, whose bleakly ebullient Baby Driver featured action sequences as exciting as anything in Spectre. (Or anything else last year, for that matter.) The British director is mentioned as a “real possibility,” which, when combined with Wright’s publicly stated desire to helm a Bond film, makes this a (hopefully) serious option. Of course, none of this makes clear if the film will keep the new script by John Hodge wrote from an idea by Boyle, or if an older one would be pulled out, but it’s still an intriguing thought. Here’s hoping his experience with Marvel didn’t sour Wright on the promise of taking on some pre-existing characters.