While speculation over who will play the next James Bond rages on, things are coming together behind the camera for the next and 26th installment in the 007 franchise. Recently, producers David Heyman and Amy Pascal have been eyed to produce the new film, but no official announcements can be made until the paperwork is finished regarding the $1 billion buyout of Barbara Broccoli’s Bond rights. The Sun claims that writers have already been hired, but again, there hasn’t been an announcement. Likewise, no announcement can be made regarding the director of the next film, but it’s said that Edward Berger and Alfonso Cuarón are in the running. Now, Matthew Belloni of Puck said on The Town podcast that he predicts Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity, Roma) will get the gig, which would be his first film in seven years and follow his Apple TV+ series Disclaimer.
“It’s an informed, speculative pick,” said Belloni. “And it is not Chris Nolan. I think the fact that he’s tied up for the next year and a half on The Odyssey, I just don’t think Amazon wants to wait that long. I think Jeff Bezos says, ‘Give me my Bond movie now,’ and they just cannot wait. The fact that they went directly to these producers suggests […] they want to move pretty fast on this. I think it’s going to be Alfonso Cuarón.” Belloni continued:
“I’ll tell you why. He has a long relationship with David Heyman. They go back to Gravity. They go back 21, 22 years to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. They’ve worked together a long time. They’re friendly. I have heard that there are some talks, that there is a take, and that they are serious. Now, it’s not like he’s negotiating or anything like that, but my prediction is that Alfonso Cuarón will direct the next James Bond.”
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The addition of David Heyman to the Bond team certainly bodes well for Cuarón. Heyman has been one of the best producers of recent years thanks to his company, Heyday Films, which has had big success with Wonka and Barbie. That follows their years of producing the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies, along with the Paddington films. More interestingly, though, the studio has also focused on auteur-driven films, from Noah Baumbach’s brilliant White Noise and Marriage Story, not to mention Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans. And, of course, Cuarón’s Gravity.
Alfonso Cuarón Almost Made a James Bond Movie Years Ago
At the Marrakech Film Festival in 2024 (via Variety), Cuarón told audiences that he had already been involved in discussions about a James Bond movie years ago. He had made the massive Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (first as a cash grab, and then as a great learning experience, ultimately making arguably the best entry in the franchise), and was, as the filmmaker says, offered a Bond film. He explained:
“Ages ago I was offered a Bond film. And I said, ‘Yeah, cool. Maybe Bond. I am going to do one.’ And then when the process started and I was going to shoot all the dialogue and stuff, there was a [separate] team doing all the action scenes. It kind of felt very weird. I was troubled about the idea of doing it. I had dinner with Joel Coen, and I said, ‘Joel, what do you think of Bond?’ And he said, ‘Oh cool, I enjoy Bond.’ I said, ‘Would you do a Bond film?’” According to Cuarón, Coen replied: “It probably falls into the category of a film I want to watch but not do.”
“There I learned the lesson that some films I prefer to watch and not do,” added Cuarón. Time will tell if he applies the same logic to the James Bond franchise, but the odds are in his favor. And if he does the gig, maybe he’ll cast his Children of Men star, Clive Owen, as Bond. One can only hope.
Summary
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming’s death in 1964: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver; a new novel, written by William Boyd, is planned for release in 2013. Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.
The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip and video game formats as well as being used in the longest running and the second-highest grossing film franchise to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2012, there have been twenty two films in the Eon Productions series, with a twenty third, Skyfall, due for release on 26 October 2012. The film will star Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond: he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films, Casino Royale, a 1967 spoof, and Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball.
The films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs to the films having picked up Academy Award nominations on several occasions. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond’s cars, his guns and the gadgets he is supplied with by Q Branch.
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