Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy will come to a conclusion next month with The Dark Knight Rises, and with him leaving Gotham City behind for good, could he be aiming to take on another iconic character as his next project?
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Nolan was asked about the possibility of him serving at the helm of a James Bond film in the future, and this was his response:
"It would have to be the right situation and the right time in their cycle of things."
Interesting answer.
Can I endorse Nolan for something like this? Yes, but I do have a few stipulations. While I genuinely enjoy many of the characters Nolan and his team craft for his films, I'm still not sold on him directing action. There are a few notable exceptions, of course, which I'll touch on in a minute, but the final action sequence of Inception that was set on the mountain was very underwhelming in my eyes, as was the final sequence in The Dark Knight, when Batman needs to scale the building with the hospital "prisoners" in order to get to the Joker.
However, Nolan's also hit it out of the park several times in this same area, namely with the chase scene in the middle of The Dark Knight that culminates in the Joker's tractor trailer being flipped on its head, and with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's rotating hallway fight scene in Inception. So while Nolan has proven on a handful of occasions that he can craft exciting and intriguing sequences, in my eyes he has yet to deliver them consistently throughout an entire film.
My perspective could very well change in just a few short weeks though, because it looks and sounds like there will be a boatload of action in The Dark Knight Rises, including a handful of fight scenes between Batman and Bane, and some solid vehicle work featuring a slew of Tumblers and Bruce Wayne's new toy, the Batwing. So, all the ingredients seem to be in play for Nolan to deliver an action extravaganza of sorts, and I hope to find myself fully enthralled by all of the sequences him and his team have designed.
What's even more interesting is Nolan's remark about it being "the right time in their cycle of things." It would appear there wouldn't be a better time for Nolan to take over Bond than right now. While Bond has been overly campy and outrageous in the past, the most recent two films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have scaled back the extravagant effects and lavish set pieces, opting instead for a more realistic take on the Bond universe, focusing on his humanity and the struggles he fights through due to his primary job being, you know, killing people.
Nolan has never really been a fan of CGI (I love this about him), which is why we would never see him direct a Bond flick like Die Another Day, but he does seem to have a talent for bringing his characters back down to earth, grounding them with very human problems and putting them through potentially devastating situations. Despite Batman being derived from a comic book, he obviously doesn't boast the super powers of some of the other famous DC heroes, and Nolan's universe has yet to feature anything otherworldly. Nolan's Bond would most likely be very grounded, realistic, and human, which is exactly what Daniel Craig's Bond is right now, and audiences and critics have responded positively to that.
So if he wanted to do a reboot of sorts, how original would it actually feel? Wouldn't he be better off giving his spin on the grounded take on Bond that's happening right now?
Obviously there are a host of variables that come into play in a situation like this that need to be addressed: What's Nolan's asking price? Would he want to do just one film or take on a trilogy, similar to what he did with Batman? Does he want Daniel Craig as his Bond (rumors have floated that Tom Hardy would want to don the tux, but only if Nolan was directing)? Would he want to write the screenplay or would he leave it in the very capable hands of frequent Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (they often bring on other collaborators to help)?
One thing I can fully endorse Nolan on: Characters. He and his team gave us Heath Ledger's Joker, hands-down the most captivating villain in recent film history, and obviously the Bond franchise has a long history of intriguing and menacing villains. If Nolan were to take over, I would fully expect someone truly diabolical to be up against 007.
So, what's my verdict? As long as he doesn't demand to bring Tom Hardy in as Bond, yes, I'd be cool with Nolan directing a Bond flick.
Don't expect any news on this in the near future, as that quote came out of a magazine feature, and Nolan's going to be all Dark Knight Rises all the time for the next two to four months (and even beyond seeing as it'll be a smash at the box office).
In the meantime, maintain your boyish excitement for the Sam Mendes-directed Skyfall, which drops in the United States on November 9.
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