Amazon MGM Studios has just announced that Oscar-nominated filmmaker Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film in an incredibly exciting move for the spy franchise.
Accompanying Villeneuve will be his artistic partner and wife, Tanya Lapointe, as executive producer, as well as David Heyman and Amy Pascal as producers.
“Some of my earliest moviegoing memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory,” Villeneuve said in a statement on Wednesday (25 June). “I intend to honour the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honour.”
“We are honoured that Denis has agreed to direct James Bond’s next chapter. He is a cinematic master whose filmography speaks for itself,” Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said of Villeneuve. It’s fair to say that we can expect big things in the franchise’s next instalment.
While we’re rather excited that this big name in the business will be the creative mind behind what is one of the decade’s most anticipated films, we can’t ignore his already impressive, existing catalogue. Villeneuve is a four-time Academy Award nominee, known for his ability to combine blockbuster visuals with complex character storylines.
If, in the lead up to the release of what is currently known as “Bond 26”, you’re looking to get a taste of Villeneuve’s impeccable style, or refresh your memory on his skill, there are a number of his films we’d recommend you watch.
Dune
It’s often been said that Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune is unadaptable to the big screen, but Villeneuve pulled it off. Somehow turning high-concept 1960s sci-fi psychedelia into an approachable action blockbuster, the 2021 Dune film follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Paul, the son of the noble house Atreides, is pulled from his comfortable homeworld into a web of political intrigue on the desert planet Arrakis. Drawn into a complicated war over the psychotropic drug “spice”, Paul finds himself in the middle of dangerous machinations between his mother’s magical, all-women cult, the terrifying feudal Harkonnens, and Arrakis’ insurgent native population. Sounds like a lot, but Villeneuve manages to juggle all of this with some astonishing action set pieces.
Dune: Part Two
Spoilers ahead. Dune: Part Two was released in 2024, and once again follows Paul Atreides' journey. As he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen of Arrakis in a war against House Harkonnen, Paul has difficult choices to make between the love of his life, and the fate of the known universe. The mind-bending second act of Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy, this film has some truly astonishing set pieces – once seen, the black and white infrared gladiator fight on Giedi Prime is never forgotten.
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 neo-noir sci-fi sequel to Blade Runner (1982). The film is set in Los Angeles in the year 2049, where replicants are still being used for slave labour. Working for the Los Angeles Police Department as a blade runner, K (Ryan Gosling) has the job of hunting down and retiring outdated Nexus-8 android replicants. After evidence emerges that replicants can reproduce, K is sent on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who has been missing for 30 years, with the help of his AI girlfriend Joi (Ana de Armas) and Freysa (Hiam Abbass). Visually stunning, the film somehow matches the neon heights of the original.
Sicario
Sicario is the most Bond-like of all Villeneuve’s films. FBI special agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is drawn into the war on drugs at the border between the US and Mexico. This stunningly violent film follows Kate into a complicated plot unravelling the interplay between Mexican drug cartels and complicit US government agencies. Like Dune, this film is packed with intricate, hair-raising action set pieces that should translate perfectly into Bond.
Arrival
This beautiful film is a first-contact film like you’ve never seen before. After twelve mysterious spacecraft appear over the Earth, linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is tasked with deciphering an extraterrestrial language along with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). A slower, quieter film than Villeneuve’s other blockbusters, the film focuses on the nature of language and memory as it follows Louise’s painstaking work to decipher an alien language she cannot even hear. The award-winning soundtrack is truly spine-tingling, and the payoff to the shocking twist at the end of the film is another unforgettable Villeneuve moment.
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