- The mystery as to why Christopher Nolan has never directed a James Bond film, despite being a perfect candidate on paper, has been “solved.”
- Variety explains that producer Barbara Broccoli’s hardline approach to final cut privileges has been the key barrier.
- But now that Broccoli and brother Michael G. Wilson have relinquished “creative control” of 007 to Amazon MGM Studios, it could be on the cards for Nolan post-The Odyssey.
A week on from what many have deemed the final nail in the Bond franchise’s coffin (present company included), Variety has published a litany of fascination revelations.
For years, fans and industry pundits alike have speculated about a Christopher Nolan-helmed instalment. Especially considering he’s unofficially been auditioning for the coveted gig since The Dark Knight; right through to Inception, and most prominently with Tenet starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson.
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It was to the point that previously, the rumour mill alleged that the Academy Award-winning talent of Oppenheimer renown was pitching a grizzled Cold War-era throwback for 007: a Daniel Craig reset, if you will. Sadly, that fantasy – along with whatever else he may have actually been discussing – was stopped dead in its tracks.
According to inside sources, Nolan had expressed an active interest in James Bond circa 2020, immediately following the release of Tenet. Ultimately, this amounted to nothing as longtime producer and IP gatekeeper Barbara Broccoli firmly maintained that no director would ever have final cut while the legendary spy franchise was under her control. Meanwhile, Nolan has proven to a prolific degree that he is a final-cut director: the kind who will not kowtow to studios or executives.
Of course, this didn’t exactly set his career back by any stretch of the imagination. Foregoing MI6 and martinis, Nolan would take on the universally-acclaimed darker half of Barbenheimer: which generated nearly $1 billion at the box office, won seven Oscars – including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr, as well as Best Director – and nabbed the filmmaker a knighthood in the process.
And considering Ms Broccoli and her brother Michael G. Wilson have now relinquished “creative control” of the franchise to real-life Bond villain Jeff Bezos and Amazon MGM Studios, for a reported sum of $1 billion, perhaps the final cut barrier is no longer a factor (god knows these streamers-cum-studios love to pander).
The real question is whether Christopher Nolan would still be keen to tackle Bond once he’s wrapped shooting on his latest epic undertaking – an all-star adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and plenty more slated for release on July 17th, 2026. By all accounts, a resounding yes.
During a 2023 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, he had this to say about the cinematic universe of Bond:
“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.”
The king of high-concept (and practical effects) added how timing would be the make-or-break element – regardless of 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.”
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Prior to that, Christopher Nolan told Playboy the following in 2017: “I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it.”
“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.”
As another fascinating aside, Variety also pointed out that decades prior, the one and only Steven Spielberg raised his hand to direct a James Bond flick following Close Encounters of the Third Kind; but was vetoed by Broccoli and Wilson’s late father Albert “Cubby” Broccoli due to a perceived inexperience.
It just goes to show you really can’t please ’em all.
