‘Dune' filmmaker Denis Villeneuve to direct next James Bond film
After trademark woes, fears over Trump's tariffs, and endless speculation over the identity of the actor who will take over the 007 mantle, here's a very promising update for the 26th Bond adventure.
Amazon MGM Studios put out a press release confirming the identity of the filmmaker for the first 007 film under the studio. They have picked French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve to guide James Bond into a new era.
Villeneuve will also serve as executive producer, alongside Tanya Lapointe. As previously announced, Amy Pascal and David Heyman will serve as producers.
Villeneuve said in a statement: '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.'
He continued: 'To me, he's sacred territory. I intend to honour 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 honour. Amy, David, and I are absolutely thrilled to bring him back to the screen. Thank you to Amazon MGM Studios for their trust.'
The head of Amazon MGM Studios, Mike Hopkins, described Villeneuve as a "cinematic master whose filmography speaks for itself".
He added: "Denis has delivered compelling worlds, dynamic visuals, complex characters, and - most importantly - the immersive storytelling that global audiences yearn to experience in theatres. James Bond is in the hands of one of today's greatest filmmakers and we cannot wait to get started on 007's next adventure."
We couldn't agree more with Hopkins' comments. Denis Villeneuve is an inspired choice and one of the greatest filmmakers around.
It may seem like a bold statement, but we stick by it: Villeneuve has yet to make a bad film. Going one step further, his filmmography does speak for itself: they're all stunning.
Best known for helming the Dune franchise, Villeneuve is a four-time Academy Award nominee who has garnered critical acclaim for his films Incendies, Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival, and his Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049. His underseen films Polytechnique and Maelström are no slouches either.
He has proven time and time again that he can confidently handle psychological thrillers, nail-biting action scenes (Sicario's traffic jam scene is one of the tensest sequences in recent years), science-fiction goodness - all while balancing complex themes and emotions.
The fact that he is also an executive producer on the forthcoming Bond film should give the director a bigger voice when it comes to the direction the franchise is heading in for what is sure to be a reboot after (spoilers) Bond's death in No Time To Die.
While further details on the next Bond film have yet to be revealed, including its cast, release date and plot, picking Villeneuve is a sure sign that Amazon are taking this seriously.
They have to, as it was announced in March that the long-serving producers of the films, Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, had stepped away from the creative process and handed over control to Amazon MGM Studios. This ended over 60 years of the Broccoli family's control of the Bond estate. A lot of Bond fans did not react well to the news of the franchise's sale, with many fearing that the new corporate leadership will ruin the series by over-saturating the market with spin-offs, series and other ventures that would dilute the impact of the big screen Bond adventures.
The appointment of a director of Villeneuve's caliber should assuage some of those fears.
Both Villeneuve's Dune and Dune: Part Two grossed a combined total of more than $1bn worldwide, with both films nominated for Best Picture Oscars in their respective years. Villeneuve is expected to start shooting Dune Messiah, the third movie of the Dune franchise, later this year with a potential release date in 2026.
This means that while production is underway for the next Bond film, the earliest we can expect to see the movie will be by the end of 2027. Therefore, Bond 26 will beat the longest ever recorded gap between two James Bond films, since Daniel Craig's swansong, No Time To Die, came out in 2021.
The previous record was set by GoldenEye, which was released in 1995 - six years after Timothy Dalton appeared in Licence to Kill.
The 2015-2021 pause between SPECTRE and No Time To Die already gave that record a run for its money, primarily due to the Covid pandemic which delayed the release of the film.
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