The name is Villeneuve, Denis Villeneuve. Chances are you already knew it well, whether for some of the riveting character studies early in his career like Prisoners, Sicario, and Enemy, or more likely for his pivot to epic genre cinema via Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the new Dune movies (Oscar nominees all). Yet even so, we suspect you weren’t prepared for Wednesday night’s late breaking news: for his first movie since entering the sands of Arrakis, Villeneuve is going to be directing the new James Bond movie for Amazon MGM Studios.
The studio confirmed the news late Wednesday after months of speculation about what the next era of 007 would look like following the bombshell revelation that Amazon was able to buy out Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the heirs and caretakers of what was the family business of making Bond movies. Rumors swirled about various filmmakers like Edgar Wright and Jonathan Nolan allegedly pitching the streaming giant about what their vision for Bond would be. There is a lot riding on it since in addition to being the first Bond without the Broccolis, it will also be the first not starring Daniel Craig in what’ll be two decades years come 2026. And yet, it was the exacting and artful Canadian filmmaker who apparently won Amazon over with his vision for the 007 of tomorrow.
In a statement released by Villeneuve, the director said, “Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory. I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor.”
It’s big news and a sign that the world of James Bond is definitely changing under the new stewardship of Amy Pascal (producer on various Spider-Man and Venom movies, as well as last year’s crackling Challengers) and David Heyman (the Harry Potter films, Gravity, Barbie). For most of the past 60 years, the Broccolis have been notoriously gun shy about hiring “auteurs,” or directors with strong authorial vision and creative demands. It’s why paterfamilias Cubby Broccoli passed twice on letting Steven Spielberg realize his dream to make a Bond movie (he then famously channeled that energy into Indiana Jones), as well as why their Eon Productions company stayed pretty wary of longtime fans like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino.
In the Craig era, that certainly changed to a degree with Sam Mendes directing two 007 films, Skyfall and Spectre, but only after a franchise veteran like Martin Campbell set the tone in Craig’s debut, Casino Royale. Barbara and Wilson also then had a public falling out with Danny Boyle, who at one point was attached to helm No Time to Die.
In other ways though, it’s a fair question to wonder how much of a departure this might be from recent James Bond films. During the Craig era, beginning with Mendes’ two contributions specifically, the series veered toward a more elevated (or detractors might say precious) tone and aesthetic, with the films also getting increasingly dour until they climaxed with James Bond dying to save a child and mother he unwittingly abandoned. In other words, they were not “fun” movies, extended Ana de Armas cameo sequences notwithstanding.
As much as I admire Villeneuve’s body of work, with Arrival specifically being something of an underrated masterpiece, I also would hesitate to use the word “fun” to describe it. And frankly, a lighter touch is exactly what the Bond movies need after spending the last 19 years and counting in the shadow of Craig’s grittier interpretation.
To be sure, when Craig’s Bond launched in 2006 it felt like a jolt of kinetic energy that the franchise desperately needed as well. In many respects Pierce Brosnan remains the most perfectly obviously casting of Bond the franchise has yet enjoyed, but the jovial and lighthearted dynamic of his tenure felt out of touch in the years immediately following 9/11 (not to mention an unfortunately dire final film in Die Another Day). Yet the intuition to radically change tone and tenor was always a remarkable instinct that the Broccoli family managed to pass from one generation to the next.
Most folks forget this now, but Die Another Day was a huge hit in 2002 and the highest grossing Bond movie ever (not accounting for inflation). It was relatively well received by critics at the time, and Brosnan was so popular in the role that no less than Quentin Tarantino wanted to cast him after DAD in a Casino Royale reboot set in the 1960s. It was hard at the time to picture anyone else in the tuxedo. Barbara Broccoli could see Craig in it, however. So she ignored focus testing and pursued a casting that was met with vitriolic disgust and contempt in the British tabloids (“Blond Blond?!” they seemed to cry in unison).
The change in direction with a hard reboot reminiscent of what Christopher Nolan did barely a year earlier in Batman Begins proved apropos and set the table for what was to come. We’ve had five movies since then, released across 16 years, and just as Brosnan in turn felt fresh after the grumpy and poorly received Timothy Dalton era in the late ‘80s, it might be time to return to the lighter touch that traditionally has been 007’s bread and butter.
Well before Craig or Brosnan, after all, there was Sean Connery who set the yardstick by which all future Bonds are still and will forever be measured. He had a capacity for violence and even cruelty like Craig, but also boyish playfulness and a joie de vivre that might as well be a stranger to Craig’s interpretation of 007. There was also Roger Moore right after him who elevated the humor of Connery’s era to pure camp with the greatest number of Bond films attributed to one actor in the Eon Productions machine (seven movies in total).
Or: Bond has more often than not had a sense of humor and fun about him—which became glaringly absent in the last couple Craig entries in the series.
To be clear, Villeneuve is a master of his craft and a profoundly skilled storyteller who was able to make Frank Herbert’s foreboding and seemingly impenetrable Dune universe accessible to a mainstream Hollywood audience. And right now, only Villeneuve, Pascal, and Heyman know what the director has in mind for the next 007 adventure. We hope though that it’s something that will mark a departure not only for Bond after Craig’s run, but also for Villeneuve.
As superb as Dune Part Two is, and heartbreaking as Prisoners’ tragedy becomes, I’ve seen little of the wit that the Bond movies are traditionally known for in the director’s oeuvre to date. While it is easy to imagine him making a film that could sit comfortably alongside Skyfall, it might be more challenging to see him making something that could be a companion piece to Goldfinger or The Spy Who Loved Me.
That challenge is exciting though, and with any luck it will be met. It’s even why I was one of those genuinely intrigued to hear Villeneuve was developing a film based on Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life. For starters, Cleopatra led a remarkable life that’s never been done justice onscreen despite some iconic movies bearing her name (and Schiff’s biography is a stunning work of scholarship). But also it would be a departure for a filmmaker who now has spent close to a decade in science fiction and franchise moviemaking.
It would seem Villeneuve will spend some more time in the world of franchises, so let’s hope that it will leave us shaken, stirred, and on fresh terrain.
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