‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d Return

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sam Mendes directed two James Bond movies, “Skyfall” (2012) and “Spectre” (2015), and he doubts he’ll return to the 007 franchise to helm a third entry.

Speaking to Inverse to promote his new HBO series “The Franchise,” Mendes said the studio often needs a director who is younger and thus more “controllable.” That’s no longer him. “Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it,” Mendes said about directing a third “Bond” movie. “It was very good for me at that moment in my life.

I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain.

You have to have a lot of energy.” “They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career, who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio,” he added about the next Bond director.