Bond 25: Could 007 Get Sherlock's Indie Director?

After Spectre became an unjustly under-appreciated disappointment for Eon, you could have forgiven the company for retreating, licking their wounds and using Daniel Craig's somewhat acrimonious departure from the Bond role as an excuse to delay Bond 25. But it appears they're pressing on with the same sort of schedule, entertaining distribution offers from other studios and apparently talking to Craig once more about returning to play 007.

Now, it appears they're also eyeing up potential talent to replace Sam Mendes, who definitely isn't returning, and their target is a lot more indie-focused than you might have expected. IndieWire say that Paul McGuigan (who has directed the likes of Sherlock, Lucky Number Slevin and Victor Frankenstein) is in the running for the prestigious job.

On reflection, expecting a different approach to hiring Bond directors might have been wrong, given that the last two hires have been Mendes and Monster's Ball's Marc Forster. They might be big names, but they're more inclined to arthouse film-making. Whether it's the right way to go remains to be seen, though.

Meanwhile, Daniel Craig is apparently closing in on his own return confirmation and writers Purvis and Wade are already putting the next story together, though they've expressed concerns about writing extreme villains when the real world already has Donald Trump.

Speaking of the cross-over between Bond and politics, self-appointed alt-right spokesdouche Richard Spencer was interviewed by comedian W. Kamau Bell about white privilege and called the idea of a black actor playing James Bond "too much". Just in case you wondered what an irrelevant opinion on the subject looked like.