Blade Runner 2049 to Bond 25: yes, Mr Villeneuve, we expect you to direct

Like Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes and Peter Jackson, Villeneuve is a rare example of a visionary film-maker with franchise nous. Can he get the 007 gig?

Sam Mendes may have done more than just reload 007’s Walther PPK with box-office bullets when he took on Skyfall five years ago. For decades, Bond production company Eon vacillated between recruiting indie directors with a handful of arthouse hits on their hands (Quantum of Solace’s Marc Forster; Die Another Day’s Lee Tamahori) and tried and tested industry stalwarts (Casino Royale and GoldenEye’s Martin Campbell; The World Is Not Enough’s Michael Apted). But in the wake of Mendes’ success in taking Bond past the $1bn mark for the first time, then almost repeating the feat with 2015’s Spectre, an entirely new calibre of film-maker is being mentioned to take charge of 2019’s 25th official 007 movie.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2y93B8e