There has been some renewed speculation that Daniel Craig would like to see Sam Mendes, the director of ‘Skyfall’, renew his directing duties for the next 007 movie, which will be no. 24 in the Bond franchise.
The UK’s Sunday Express newspaper (November 4) published some brief comments made by Craig about this possibility, and the Express report has now been taken up by various websites. In fact, Craig’s comments on this were originally made in an interview he gave to BBC Radio-4’s weekly movie programme ‘The Film Programme’, given while he was promoting ‘Skyfall’. The interview was broadcast on BBC Radio-4 on Thursday October 25, and repeated on Sunday October 28.
In the short interview with the 007 star, Francine Stock (who hosts the programme), at one point observed that the James Bond of ‘Skyfall’ is more emotional than the ‘Casino Royale’ version, and invited Craig’s views on the latest version of his Bond character.
Craig said that you ‘have to gather the talent together’ and ‘be creative’, and added: ‘The stars seemed to align a bit more on this one and it gave us more time to discuss things. Hopefully that will pay dividends for the next one as well, the conversations that Sam and I had, and if Sam does the next one that will be great… We’ve set up an awful lot of ideas and we’ve still got other things to play around with’.
Craig said that, with ‘Skyfall’, he had been ‘very keen’ to bring the character back into the ‘Bond world’, a world where ‘anything can happen’. He also referred to the ‘old and new’ theme at the heart of the movie. The Bond of ‘Skyfall’, he explained, is ‘getting a little long in the tooth for the job’, whereas the ‘modern take’ on espionage today is all ‘drones and spy satellites’. But, Craig observed, James Bond is of that world where if you don’t send agents into the field ‘to look people in the eye, you’ll never find out the truth’.
Craig also told Francine Stock that the film has a number of themes, including ‘mothers and sons’, and was also a chance to use London extensively. He said he was ‘very happy’ with how the movie had turned out.
Meanwhile, some interesting details have emerged about Daniel Craig’s next film project. He has signed up for a new Second World War movie, ‘The Monuments Men’, to be directed by George Clooney, which is about a team of international art experts hired by the American government to track down valuable art work stolen by the Nazis. The experts often placed their lives at risk in the process. The film will cover an 11-month period from the D-Day landings in June, 1944, to VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day) in May, 1945.
Clooney is also co-writing the script with Grant Heslov, based on material from the book on the subject by Robert Edsel. Although it is not yet clear which role Daniel Craig will play, filming on the new movie is due to commence on March 1, 2013, and locations will include Germany, Austria, France and England.