Christopher Nolan Addresses Directing a James Bond Movie: “It Would Be an Amazing Privilege”

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan addressed the fan desire for him to direct a James Bond movie. He told Josh Horowitz that “it would be an amazing privilege” on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast. During their conversation, the idea of the filmmaker heading up the next 007 feature reared it’s head as the host bet Nolan $20 that he would be behind the camera for the movie. The Oppenheimer director joked, “I couldn’t possibly take a bet like that.” But, his love for the James Bond franchise is obvious and he would be willing to listen under strict circumstances.

 “Well, not diplomatic, I would say honest about it. I love those movies. The influence of those movies on my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. You know? So there’s no attempt to shy away from that. I love the films,” the director admitted. “It would be an amazing privilege to do one. When you take on a character like that, you’re taking on a set of constraints. You have to have the right attitude towards that. It has to be the right moment in your creative life where you can express what you want to express and burrow into something within the appropriate constraints. You don’t ever want to take on something like that and do it wrong.”

“It’s very similar to the responsibility I felt taking on Batman. You wouldn’t want to take on a film that wasn’t completely committed to what you can bring to the table creatively. Writing, casting, the full package,” Nolan continued. “I stand with my previous answer. You’d have to be really needed. You’d have to be really wanted in terms of bringing the totality of what you bring to the character. Otherwise, I’m happy to be the first in line to see what they do.  

Will Christopher Nolan Ever Direct Another Superhero Movie or Star Wars?

The Dark Knight recently celebrated a big anniversary. So, people are feeling nostalgic for Nolan’s Batman movies. However, when asked by Hugo Decrypte on YouTube, the filmmaker quickly said “no” to directing another superhero project. But, when the topic of working with Lucasfilm on Star Wars came up, Nolan elected to “pass” instead. So, it doesn’t seem like that kind of big franchise work is in the cards at the moment. 

Last year, ComicBook.com spoke to his Dark Knight star, Christian Bale, about returning to Batman at some point. Well, for the actor, he’d be willing to return after the right circumstances as well. It doesn’t seem likely, but anything can happen in these movies now. However, one ingredient is missing at the moment.

“For me, that would be a matter of Chris Nolan, if he ever decided to do it again and if he chose to come my way again, then yeah, I would consider it because that was always our pact between each other is we would just stick to it,” Bale told us. “We said we would only ever make three. And then I said to myself, and I’d only ever make it with Chris.” 

Christopher Nolan’s Latest Project Is A Masterclass

Comicbook.com’s Patrick Cavanaugh reviewed Oppenheimer for the site. He lauded Nolan’s commitment to a story that needed to be told. This is one of our current greats operating at near peak efficiency. But, the movie is both desolate and going to be hard for some audiences to grapple with. Honestly, that might be for the best!

“After a long string of crowd-pleasers that also manage to inject ambitious philosophical and existential components, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s most intellectual and internal experience in years. It showcases the universality of humanistic struggles without hingeing upon them entirely, while also subtly yet exponentially layering in explicit critiques of global war machines. Despite chronicling events that unfolded 70 years ago, exploring an arms race or being given conflicting information by government authorities and being expected to honor ever-changing ideologies feels immensely contemporary.”

Do you want to see Nolan direct James Bond? Let us know down in the comments!