After Danny Boyle wasand then wasn’tmaking the next Bond movie, the “who will direct” merry-go-round started up again. (The “who will play Bond” merry-go-round never stops, even when someone is already playing Bond.) After a month of searching, the new director for Bond 25 has been announced and it is Cary Joji Fukunaga. It’s kind of surprising and then it’s not once you think about it. Fukunaga is known for stylish violence (see also:True Detective, Beasts of No Nation), but he can also do sexy modernist takes on classic British stories (see also:Jane Eyre). So he’s kind of in the sweet spot for Bond—stylish, sexy, good with action. He makes more sense than Danny Boyle did.
And he will get some time to work it out as, defying industry logic, EON Productions actually did move the release date back to 2020. For a while, studios wouldn’t dream of missing announced release dates, but after a slew of movies failed because they were obviously rushed to meet a release date, it seems executives are inching back around to the idea that it’s better to miss a date and make a good movie than rush and make a bad one (ahem, DC Films). So this is a positive development for what will be Daniel Craig’s last go-round in the Bond saddle. He’s got a good new director, a little time to make it work, and then he can exit on, hopefully, a high note. And then we get to play the next round in the never-ending nightmare roulette of Who Will Play James Bond. That’ll be just so much…fun.
