Yup, I'm still catching up on news that broke whilst I was away. At the world premiere of his spectacular new movie
Inception last Thursday, director
Chris Nolan revealed to the
BBC that;
Ive loved the Bond films since I was a kid. For me, theyre always about the expansiveness of cinema. The first Bond films set up infinite possibilities about the world they create. Id love to do a Bond film.
Which isn't exactly groundbreaking news, as we've known since
Batman Begins five years ago that he has a fondness for 007, and in many ways with that franchise (the gadgets, Lucius Fox as a new Q, the global scope) and his new heist movie Inception - he kind of
already has done his own James Bond film. In fact, I'm sure I read somewhere that the snow sequence of Inception was something he planned to get his love for
On Her Majesty's Secret Service out of his system.
However, you can't deny that these comments are a clear 'come get me sometime' statement from Nolan to the Bond producers and the more he keeps making movies on the sheer mass-scale of
The Dark Knight and Inception (and importantly, they keep making mammoth returns) there becomes an almost inevitably about James Bond and Chris Nolan existing in the same sentence. But logistically, could it happen and if so - how far away are we from seeing it?
Well it's not going to happen right now, that much we do know. Pre-production is already under-way on
Batman 3, a movie that will keep Nolan busy for the next two years. Then there's his producing stint on
Superman: The Man of Steel which opens late 2012, so his schedule won't be free until 2013. And that's presuming he doesn't need anytime off. By then, we would expect James Bond to have found a buyer. We've well documented
MGM's financial woes that are blocking the production of
Bond 23 right now, halting that franchise for an indefinite period. Though
we did hear last week that
Daniel Craig and producer/probable director
Sam Mendes have stayed committed to the film, despite there being no timescale on the further adventures of James Bond. One possibility we could forsee is Warner Bros. acquiring the rights to the Bond franchise from MGM with the intention of allowing Chris Nolan, a director they trust more than anyone else at their studio, to spearhead a new series for them in the future. However they have been reluctant so far to buy the rights to
The Hobbit from MGM (despite them having a stake in that movie through their New Line subsidiary), and they have so many franchises to their name right now with DC Entertainment and everything else, maybe Bond is an easy pass for them? As with every franchise appointment, timing is everything and by the time Nolan would be in a position to make a Bond movie, MGM might have solved their issues and Daniel Craig could be gearing up to his fourth film by then with a different director. An infinite amount of occurrences could happen in the next three years, Nolan's comment is barely worth talking about in a grander sense.
And there's also the fact that
Broccoli family don't usually hire big-name, powerful, auteurs for their Bond movies. They never offered one to
Alfred Hitchcock when he wanted it, or
Steven Spielberg or
Quentin Tarantino, who were very vocal about their desire to jump on board the 007 bandwagon. They prefer 'yes man' directors they can easily control with mediocre who have an eye for action scenes - though they have slightly changed their policy in recent years, hiring
Marc Forster who delivered an arty Bond in
Quantum of Solace - and in the recent acquirement of Sam Mendes. So maybe there policy has changed? And there's obviously a clear advantage in hiring Nolan, in not only that his filmography easily makes him the best qualified helmer on the market but also the fact that he is a popular director in America, almost a brand name, in a market Bond has always had trouble really breaking through in Bourne style numbers. At the end of the day, WB will be desperate to keep Nolan on their lot. He is their marquee director and by hiring him as a producer on the new
Superman movies they have already secured his stay with them for the near future at least. Making plans to buy the Bond franchise, could keep him with them for the rest of this decade. Meanwhile, in what is a pretty neat side-story regarding Nolan's Inception - WB exec
Jeff Robinov has revealed to The L.A. Times that early considerations for the Dom Cobb lead were
Will Smith and
Brad Pitt before they ultimately settled on
Leonardo DiCaprio. That actually goes against what I had heard from my sources when the DiCaprio/Inception casting broke that he was Nolan's one and only choice to lead. Maybe he was, but the studio looked at Smith (probably the biggest star on the planet right now) and Pitt before Nolan convinced them on DiCaprio. Although I think all three are doing the best work of their career's right now, I think for this role, DiCaprio was the smart choice.