Steven Spielberg as soon as utilized for the job — and didn’t get it. Identical with Christopher Nolan. And Quentin Tarantino. And Peter Jackson.
Over the many years, James Bond has left behind a smoldering path of blown-up villain lairs and wrecked Aston Martins — but additionally a hefty pile of heartbroken A-list administrators. Ever since Terence Younger shot the primary 007 function, 1962’s Dr. No, the franchise has been one among cinema’s most coveted behind-the-camera gigs. Alfonso Cuarón, Joe Wright, Matthew Vaughn, Man Ritchie — at one time or one other, all of them dreamed of directing a Bond film. And so they all, for one motive or one other, by no means bought the possibility.
All of which is to say: congratulations, Denis Villeneuve! You’ve simply landed the hardest-to-get directing job in Hollywood. The 58-year-old French-Canadian auteur shall be helming the twenty sixth Bond movie — the primary since longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson bought the franchise earlier this 12 months to Amazon for a reported $1 billion.
Now comes the enjoyable half: deciding whether or not Villeneuve is the very best man for the job.
On the plus facet, he’s definitely saying all the appropriate issues. “I grew up watching James Bond movies with my father,” he gushed in a press release after the information broke. “I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory. I intend to honor the custom and open the trail for a lot of new missions to return.”
Additionally in his favor: Villeneuve has loads of expertise rebooting historical IP, normally by stretching cult classics into sprawling, brooding epics. Earlier than he turned Dune right into a two-part sand opera stuffed with billowing cloaks and infinite beige vistas, he introduced Blade Runner again with a 2017 sequel that unspooled like a hypnotic tone poem with flying automobiles. Some movie-goers love that kind of lugubrious, meditative filmmaking, some not a lot, however both method — and to paraphrase Carly Simon — no person does it higher.
No matter kind of high-art Bond film Villeneuve finally ends up making, it’s a protected wager it can look magnificent, even when its moody silences outnumber its explosions. And visuals matter on this franchise: the very best Bond movies have all the time been cinematic feasts stuffed with unique locales, beautiful femme fatales, and panoramic motion sequences. Simply image it: a Bond automotive chase reimagined as a gradual, sulky glide by means of fog and existential dread. Thrilling!
Nonetheless, there are potential downsides to hiring Villeneuve. Chief amongst them: he has no humorousness. Like, none. There’s barely a single body in his whole filmography — going again to 2013’s Prisoners and 2015’s Sicario — that may very well be described as even remotely whimsical. Sure, there’s that scene in Arrival the place international nuclear warfare is narrowly averted by a linguistics lecture, which is form of humorous — however in all probability not deliberately.
That absence of levity may show deadly. The franchise’s DNA was coiled round a double helix of motion and comedy from the beginning. Earlier than he began making Bond motion pictures, Barbara Broccoli’s father, Cubby, reduce his tooth on heroic B-grade warfare flicks, whereas his producing accomplice on the time, Harry Saltzman, started his profession by cranking out circus footage and goofy comedies. That unintentional chocolate-and-peanut-butter combo is what gave early Bond movies their distinctive, self-aware allure.
When the method strays too far in a single path, issues get bizarre. Daniel Craig’s Bond was so gloomy that you just half-expected him to show his Walther PPK on himself. Roger Moore, then again, actually turned Bond right into a clown — full make-up, purple nostril, outsized sneakers — in 1983’s Octopussy. Stunning, positively stunning.
The purpose right here is that this: A certain quantity of wit and winking is vital to the character. With out it — and there’s not a lot proof that Villeneuve can muster even a smidge of it — Bond loses his soul. He turns into Jason Bourne with a British accent.
One other potential purple flag: Villeneuve is used to getting the ultimate reduce, one thing no director has ever been granted in a Bond film. Again when the Broccolis had been working the present, they lorded over each factor of the method, from casting to script growth to advertising and marketing — and there’s no motive to consider that Amy Pascal and David Heyman, the producers Amazon has employed to interchange them, shall be any extra arms off.
That form of Blofeld-level micromanagement is strictly what drove so many top-tier administrators away from Bond previously (and, in Danny Boyle’s case, drove him off the precise set of No Time to Die). Sure, Sam Mendes managed to outlive Skyfall and Spectre, however most Bond movies aren’t made by auteurs. They’re filmed by dependable craftsmen like John Glen, Man Hamilton, and Martin Campbell — workhorse administrators who know the best way to shoot a battle scene, hit a deadline, and never throw a tantrum within the edit bay.
It stays to be seen if Villeneuve can deal with that kind of collaboration. However he’d be very silly to battle it. Whereas he might have been handed the coveted keys to the Aston Martin, the ejector seat nonetheless works.