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Given that Christopher Nolan is one of, if not the preeminent British filmmaker in the world, then it should come as no surprise that his name has been floated as a potential director for the James Bond franchise for years now.
In the run-up to the release of his new movie Oppenheimer (find our review that compares it to The Social Network of WWII films here), Nolan directly addressed rumors of his long-running interest in the character and said that it would be a “privilege” to make a 007 movie.
“The influence of those movies in my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. It would be an amazing privilege to do one. At the same time, when you take on a character like that you’re working with a particular set of constraints,” Nolan said during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“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.”
Nolan, however, indicated that if were to director a Bond movie, he’d want to be involved with the creative decisions from the start, including who is cast to succeed Daniel Craig in the role.
“You wouldn’t want to take on a film without being 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 and 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,” he said.
Given that both Nolan and the James Bond franchise appear to be open for business right now, there’s no doubt that the stewards of the Bond franchise, the Broccoli family, will likely do everything they can to woo the acclaimed The Dark Knight director to the franchise.
The Bond franchise also faces the task of following up Craig’s iconic performance, which is only going to be made more difficult due to the fact they plan on casting a younger, potentially relatively unknown actor as the legendary MI6 agent. If they could land Nolan, however, he is a brand name unto himself that would make that new Bond movie an even bigger event than usual, regardless of which actor is ultimately chosen.
Nolan’s newest film Oppenheimer hits movie theaters in the United States on Friday, July 21. You can check out a trailer for Oppenheimer below.