In a new interview with UK’s Esquire magazine, Bond star Daniel Craig relates a funny story about how thespian turned action-adventure director of Skyfall, Sam Mende, landed the directorial duties of this film.
“It’s a very showbizzy story. I was at Hugh Jackman’s house in New York. It was a soiree – we were in a play together – and Sam [film and theatre director Sam Mendes] was there. I’d had a few too many drinks and I went, ‘How do you fancy directing a Bond?’ And he kind of looked at me, and he went, ‘Yeah!’ And it snowballed from there.”
In the same interview Craig also revealed how he gets personally, emotively involved in the production of the Bond adventures:
“Bond movies live or die on their popularity. They force you to care about what people think. And I’m involved [in the films] on a very deep level. I have it in my mind all the time…So there’s that kind of pressure, and that’s an enemy in any art form, acting especially.”
About Skyfall – James Bond 23 (2012)
The new Bond movie will star Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney and Judi Dench, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The 007 screenplay will be written by regular James Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, working with John Logan (Gladiator & The Last Samurai). Director of American Beauty and Road To Perdition, Sam Mendes will be directing the new James Bond movie. MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment in a joint statement on 2nd June 2011 announced that “Bond 23″ will go on release in the UK on Friday, 26th October, 2012 and in the USA on 9th November 2012. The first major announcement from EON Productions and Sony Pictures came on 3rd November 2011 in London when the principle cast was announced, along with a rough plot line. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
