Nolan says he’s not directing Bond 25

Christopher Nolan

Director Christopher Nolan has said he’s not directing Bond 25.

“I won’t be,” Nolan said on a broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Feb. 18. “No, no categorically. I think every time they hire a new director I’m just rumored to be doing it.”

There has been a fan theory expressed on internet message boards that Nolan had committed to Bond 25 but it was being kept under wraps until after the Oscars ceremony on March 4.

Nolan is one of the nominees for Best Director for last year’s Dunkirk. Under the fan theory, the thinking is an announcement that Nolan is directing Bond 25 might ruin the director’s chances.

In December, the Archivo 007 fan webite said it was “more than likely” that Nolan would direct Bond 25. The site cited two sources it didn’t identify (one from the U.S. and one from the U.K.) as saying Nolan already was working on the 007 project.

Nolan has said he’s a fan of James Bond films, something he repeated in the BBC Radio 4 interview. The director said in a 2017 interview with Playboy magazine that he has talked to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions “over the years.”

“I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it,” Nolan told Playboy. “Maybe one day that would work out. You’d have to be needed, if you know what I mean. It has to need reinvention; it has to need you. And they’re getting along very well.”

Many fans have always been intrigued about what his take on 007 would be like. Director Sam Mendes has said Nolan’s Batman films were an influence on 2012’s Skyfall.

It’s Dr. No on the radio!

The BBC iPlayer

This past Saturday, 6 August, the British Broadcasting Company reran a 2008 audio dramatization of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Dr. No.

Directed by Martin Jarvis (who also provides the “voice of Ian Fleming,”) and written by by Hugh Whitmore, the production stars erstwhile Bond villain Toby Stephens as 007 and David Suchet as the titular bad ol’ doctor.

Thanks to the miracle of the interwebs, those of us not lucky enough to live on the Sceptered Isle can take a listen through our computing machines — even those made by Apple. So, set aside an hour-and-a-half and get yourself over to BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play: Dr. No

But hurry, it’ll only be available until next Saturday, the 13th, at 4:02 PM GMT. (Why the extra two minutes, we’re not sure. It might have something to do with Lucas electrical systems.) Tell’ em HMSS sent ya!

James Bond is back… on the radio!

Toby Stephens

Actors Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres are re-teaming with BBC Radio 4 to bring James Bond back to the radio.

As part of last year’s Ian Fleming centenary, the Jarvis and Ayres production company adapted Doctor No for the beeb, having been given special “one-off” permission by Eon Productions for the event. Toby Stephens (Gustav Graves in Die Another Day,) starred as 007, and David Suchet portrayed the titular character. Apparently, Eon was so impressed by the results that they approached the producers with an offer to do another. Goldfinger
has been chosen for this go-round, and Jarvis and Ayres are looking to bring back Stephens to the Bond role.

James Bond has been on the radio only twice before that — South African radio featured Moonraker in the 1950s, and Radio 4 did a production of You Only Live Twice in 1990.

Matthew Hemley’s complete story at The Stage News website, James Bond to return to radio as Goldfinger is adapted for BBC, has all the details.