After delivering the best James Bond film in decades with Skyfall, arguably in the top 3 or 4 the franchise has ever seen, the big question on everyone's lips since its October release has been - will Sam Mendes return to make another? No filmmaker since the 1980s has returned to make a direct follow-up to their Bond entry, most opting to deliver one movie and then disappearing to other things, but after the phenomenal success of Skyfall, you just know EON and Sony have been knocking on the door of this particular filmmaker, begging for a return more relentlessly than they have his recent predecessors.
The Daily Mail (who have long been the best source of info regarding the 007 franchise) claims Mendes is "75 per cent of the way towards doing" the 24th James Bond film. The word is Mendes was at first reluctant to return because the producers had flirted with shooting Bond 24 and 25 back-to-back with a two-part story, probably to cut costs and get more movies out of Daniel Craig before he gets too old for the role, but those plans have now seemingly been scrapped. Bond 24 and 25 will be stand-alone movies. Even before today's rumour, Mendes' involvement with the next Bond film had already been confirmed. Not long after the release of Skyfall its screenwriter Robert Made revealed that Mendes and Bond 24 screenwriter John Logan had already come up with the story for where 007 goes next. With the film set for release November 2014, Sony and EON will need to choose a director swiftly for a production start late this year... so it wouldn't surprise us if we hear confirmation on Mendes' return in the coming weeks.