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10 Directors Who Should Make A James Bond Movie

This coming Tuesday, February 12th, Sam Mendes’ Skyfall arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray, thus completing its staggeringly successful $1 billion-plus run around the globe. Now that the dust has settled around what many consider to be one of the very best James Bond films, it seems like as good a time as any to start thinking about the future of the franchise – especially when Skyfall itself put so many promising pieces in place for upcoming installments.

Steven Spielberg

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Once upon a time, Steven Spielberg so wanted to direct a James Bond movie that he ultimately channeled the necessary creative energy into creating an iconic action hero of his own – Dr. Indiana Jones. Most believe Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels satisfied Spielberg’s itch to make a 007 film – he even borrowed several stylistic or structural traits from Bond in the Jones franchise – but on the off chance Spielberg is still up for it, I would love to see him make a James Bond film of his own. Few directors, alive or dead, are better at shooting action, and as Lincoln proved last year, Spielberg’s sense of well-defined, larger-than-life characters remains second to none.

More importantly, there is a warm, infectious romanticism to Spielberg’s work that would serve Bond well post-Skyfall. The director would obviously be mismatched to a super dark and gritty Bond film like Casino Royale, but Skyfall opened doors for Bond to be a little more relaxed in the future, still dynamic and flawed but capable of existing within a less tortured tonal structure. And while I previously noted reservations about someone as stylistically singular as Christopher Nolan directing James Bond, I can more easily see Spielberg adapting to this franchise. The prospect is a long shot, but if it ever happened, I would be extremely excited.

Plus, we might get to hear John Williams write a 007 score. Am I the only one who believes that needs to happen some day?

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