Plenty of long-running franchises tend to mix it up behind the camera with each new installment, but that hasn’t typically been the case for James Bond. A dozen directors have each helmed at least one entry in the long-running spy saga, but that’s less than you might think for a property that’s 25 films deep and celebrates its 60th anniversary next year.
That being said, the earlier days of 007’s big screen adventures possessed a much greater sense of continuity than the modern era, with fifteen of the first sixteen movies being directed by either Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert or John Glen. Sam Mendes became the first filmmaker in 23 years to helm back-to-back Bonds when he followed up Skyfall with Spectre, while Martin Campbell remains the only other name to have called the shots on more than one film since 1989.
However, No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga revealed in a new interview with SlashFilm that he’s got a story idea for another globetrotting escapade should producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson invite him back for the next reboot.
“I still have a pitch I would do if I had to reboot it. This was a completely clean slate. In September of 2018 I was just listening to everyone, what was working, what wasn’t working, what they wanted, what they hoped for, and just had to sit with that and try to figure out how to turn that into a story. Inevitably, things seep in, things you’ve tried before and other stories that didn’t work, but you’re just looking for that place that it could fit, you know? I kind of think of it like spare furniture, but it very much came out of those meetings in September, and then went on until we finished shooting.”
Martin Campbell helmed the debuts of both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, so there’s no rule that says a director can’t take charge of two James Bond blockbusters with different actors in the lead role. No Time to Die is poised to put a serious dent in the box office this weekend, and making a ton of money for the studio is one way for Fukunaga to find his name at the top of the list next time around.
