25 Best Directors In The World Right Now

15. Sam Mendes

Most Recent Film: Skyfall (2012) Next Film: Spectre (2015) Best Film: Road To Perdition (2002) Sam Mendes made a James Bond movie so good that the producers practically begged him to come back for another film. And so now we're just a month away from Spectre, the follow-up to Skyfall, which is shaping up to be another sleek, action masterclass from a director who - at first - seemed like an unlikely candidate. American Beauty? Away We Go? Revolutionary Road? Hardly pictures to suggest that Mendes could helm a blockbuster. Whilst the success of Skyfall - the highest-grossing Bond movie ever - presumably came down to a lot of people's hard efforts, it has Sam Mendes' stamp all over it. It's a wonderfully crisp and tightly-controlled motion picture - Nolan-esque in its attempts to be both beautiful and a blockbuster in equal measure. There is a conflict in Sam Mendes the artist, as a result, but perhaps he has finally found his true calling in high-brow action movies. If Mendes manages to pull of the same successes with Spectre (and there's no reason why he shouldn't), there's no telling where he might go next. You can bet that off the back of a couple of billion dollar movies, though, he'll have no problem calling the shots.