Saturday is the 108th birthday of Ian Fleming, and the Guardian reports that director Sam Mendes marked the occasion by telling the world he won’t be directing any more James Bond films. Mendes, who directed both Skyfall and Spectre, was speaking at the Hay Festival in small town/delicious sandwich Hay-on-Wye, Wales, when he made the announcement. “It was an incredible adventure, I loved every second of it. But I think it’s time for somebody else,” Mendes said.
He’ll still be keeping busy, though; Mendes is attached to The Voyeur’s Motel, the film adaptation of Gay Talese’s upcoming book. The new project, recently excerpted in the New Yorker, is about a man who opens a motel to watch other people have sex. So even without spies or gadgetry, Mendes will be sticking to the core idea that makes the Bond series such a success: a troubled loner taking sexual advantage of strangers.
Speculation about who will direct the next film can now join the already-thriving internet turmoil over who should replace Daniel Craig. (Craig hasn’t definitively said he won’t return, not that that’s stopping anyone.) So internet, start your engines: It’s time for bizarre guesses and doomed fan campaigns about the next Bond director, the less likely the better. Will it be Ken Loach? Mike Leigh? Lynne Ramsay? Perhaps if Tom Hiddleston doesn’t play Bond, he can direct whoever does. So put on your action slacks, fire up Twitter, and get ready to baselessly speculate!
