After the recent news that director Danny Boyle had vacated the job of directing the much-delayed 25th James Bond movie, citing “creative differences,” we assumed James Bond would be hanging up his Walther PPK, Aston Martin keys, and shaken martini glass for a while. But not so! You can’t keep a good spy down for long. The official James Bond Twitter account announced producers Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and star Daniel Craig have tapped True Detective director Cary Fukunaga to direct Bond 25.
Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig announced today that #Bond25 will begin filming at Pinewood Studios on 4 March 2019 under the helm of director, Cary Joji Fukunaga with a worldwide release date of 14 February 2020. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Oyzt826sXd
— James Bond (@007) September 20, 2018
Production will begin on March 4, 2019, at the legendary Pinewood Studios with eyes on a February 2020 release. Craig will not in fact be vacating the role; producer Broccoli has said several times she hoped to keep Craig on board for a fifth outing. He began his tenure as the Sixth Bond (Timelord numbering) with 2006’s Casino Royale, a movie which shot the franchise back to prominence following the final couple lackluster Pierce Brosnan films. His time in the series has been longer than most, giving us only four more films over the span of a decade. By time Bond 25 comes out, Craig will have been James Bond for 14 years, and he’ll turn 52 years old a month after the movie comes out. (In comparison, Roger Moore, who made seven Bond movies in the ’70s and ’80s, was 52 when he made his fourth Bond movie, Moonraker. We definitely can’t see Craig doing two more films.)
Fukunaga made a splash by directing the first season of HBO’s True Detective, which featured a now-famous unbroken tracking shot halfway through the season. He has since directed the critically acclaimed 2015 film Beasts of No Nation starring Idris Elba, and most recently directed the 10-episode Netflix series Maniac starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone.
Despite the success Sam Mendes had with 2012’s Skyfall (much less with 2015’s Spectre), the Bond series has always thrived by having solid journeyman directors at the helm. Danny Boyle, as great as he is, is far too much of an auteur to have worked in that system, and ergo did not. Fukunaga has managed to make some amazingly artful and distinctive work in the field of television, which is much more structured and restrictive. He’s the perfect choice for the franchise, which needs to reestablish itself as an action juggernaut.
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
