With Spectre set to pull in a vast amount of revenue, possibly record-setting, at the UK box office this weekend, director Sam Mendes has spoken about what motivated him to return to direct another James Bond movie.
In the aftermath of the colossal success of Skyfall in 2012, the celebrated director initially said that he wouldn’t helm the follow-up. However, the 50 year old told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview for their October 30th issue that it took a bit of distance and perspective for him to come around to the idea, despite strong overtures from the Broccoli family.
Sam Mendes spoke about why he returned to direct ‘Spectre’
“They wooed me the first time and were very clear that they wanted me, but I had to find my own way back into it. I felt like I didn’t know where to go narratively after the last one. These things take a lot out of you, and I went immediately into a huge theater project, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. So I didn’t feel I had any headspace to try to work out how to crack it again, and they wanted an answer straightaway.”
Mendes also spoke about how the first film, and then Spectre, came to pass in his mind. “The thing that lured me into Skyfall was a lot of the mythology of Bond, the iconography of Bond from the ’60s and ’70s, and I felt like there was an opportunity [with Spectre] to perhaps reimagine on a more epic scale some of the darker characters and organizations that had haunted Bond in in the early part of the franchise — which are all of course rooted in Ian Fleming’s novels.”
More: Daniel Craig hopes ‘Spectre’ shows his Bond is not as ‘sexist and misogynistic’ as before
Indeed, Mendes believes that the more sinister nature of Fleming’s original novels, and the altered nature of what is now commercially viable in blockbusters, means that there’s an awful lot of material to be potentially revisited.
The director remained tight-lipped when asked whether if he’d be prepared to take charge of a third movie. “The most of important thing is that you can only make this decision if people want you do it, but one thing I learned from the last one is that you’re in no fit state to make any decision about your career – or any form of creative involvement in Bond – until at least six months after you’ve finished. So I think it would be foolish of me at this stage to offer anything concrete.”
Spectre opened in British cinemas on October 26th, and is set for release in the U.S. on November 6th.
More: The ‘cockiest e-mail in the world’ landed Sam Smith the chance to sing ‘Spectre’ theme
Watch the trailer for Spectre here
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