He may have definitively closed the book on the superhero genre, but Christopher Nolan still has his heart set on what is arguably the original British superhero: James Bond.
During a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, the Oppenheimer director had this to say about the legendary spy franchise:
“The influence of those movies on my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. And so there’s no attempt to shy away from that. I love the films. You know, it would be an amazing privilege to do one.”
RELATED: James Bond Fans Reckon They’ve Figured Out Who Will Be The Next 007
The king of high-concept filmmaking (and practical effects) added how timing would be the make-or-break element; despite how much he’d love to tick it off the professional bucket list.
“It has to be the right moment in your creative life where you can express what you want to express and really burrow into something within the appropriate constraints because you would never want to take on something like that and do it wrong,” he said.
“You wouldn’t want to take on a film not fully committed to what you bring to the table creatively. So as a writer, casting, everything, it’s a full package.”
“You’d have to be really needed, you’d have to be really wanted in terms of bringing the totality of what you bring to a character. Otherwise, I’m very happy to be first in line to see whatever they do.”
Christopher Nolan has essentially been auditioning to become the next James Bond director ever since The Dark Knight, right through to Inception, and most prominently with Tenet (starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson). Hence his confession about the “embarrassingly apparent” influence of 007 upon his own films.
But what some of you might not know is that, intriguingly enough, the man has kept in contact with franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson over the years.
“I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it,” Nolan told Playboy back in 2017.
“Maybe one day that would work out. You’d have to be needed, if you know what I mean. It has to need reinvention; it has to need you. And they’re getting along very well.”
Incidentally, Barbara Broccoli has revealed the iconic mantle is indeed undergoing something of a transformation for its next iteration.
RELATED: I Actually Did ‘Barbenheimer’ This Past Weekend — Here’s How It Went
“We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through,” she said after being presented with her BFI Fellowship alongside her half-brother in Wilson.
“There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond.”
“We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time. I’d say that filming is at least two years away.”
Grizzled, retired spy veteran played by Christian Bale, anyone?
There’s more where that came from: we watched and ranked every single Christopher Nolan movie. Check it out now.
