James Bond under Denis Villeneuve may be the darkest version yet
The ink has hardly dried on the press release, but the cinematic world is already abuzz with speculation about which direction Denis Villeneuve might take the James Bond franchise. So far, the director has shown that he can execute seemingly impossible projects — a Blade Runner reboot and a worthy Dune adaptation — as well as create enduring original movies like Sicario and Arrival. It will be months (if not years) before we know exactly how he’s going totackle the Bond universe, but there have been some consistent throughlines in his filmography that offer clues.
First and foremost, there is likely to be an escalation in tone from Daniel Craig’s Bond rather than a complete reset. The character has undergone a significant evolution from the moment Sean Connery introduced him to audiences in 1962. There have been suave, dangerous Bonds, campy, comedic ones, and sexy, tech-savvy ones. Craig’s was the least fun of the lot, though his brooding, borderline-emotional performance helped to ground the franchise and acknowledge the psychological toll of 007’s line of work.
Villeneuve’s films have, from the beginning, had a haunting tone. Sonically immersive but minimal in dialogue, they evoke melancholy and existentialism, regardless of whether they take place on a fictional desert planet or right in the middle of a drug war on the US/Mexico border. Regardless of who the next Bond will be, it’s hard to imagine a Villeneuve movie taking the franchise in a lighter direction. Considering the state of current affairs, it’s also likely that the series will take a more world-weary, safe-aware angle on the business of international espionage, deconstructing the swaggering mythology of the secret agent and questioning his place in the world.
One of the most promising elements to look forward to is Villeneuve’s visual style. Since his first collaboration with cinematography master Rogers Deakins in 2013’s Prisoners, he has developed a signature colour palette and expansiveness that does a significant amount of emotional storytelling on its own. Muted tones and vast landscapes add to the existential angst and isolation in his films and will lend themselves well to the requisite globetrotting of 007. Deakins himself is responsible for the most visually stunning Bond film, Skyfall, but even when Villeneuve is working without him, the results have been spellbinding. Greig Fraser, for example, has been the cinematographer behind both Dune movies and won an Oscar for the first instalment.
Another thing to look out for is his take on female characters. Historically, Bond girls have been nothing more than eye candy and innuendo. The Craig era tried to rectify this for the modern age, even turning Lea Seydoux’s character into a co-protagonist in the final film, but it never quite landed. Unlike most of the other directors who were being eyed for the new instalment, most notably Christopher Nolan, Villeneuve has a track record of not just including nuanced female characters in his movies but putting them front and centre. Emily Blunt was the protagonist in Sicario, playing a hardened FBI agent, and Amy Adams was the protagonist in Arrival, playing a linguist who is called upon to decode the language of earthbound extraterrestrials. How Villeneuve will stay true to Bond’s playboy reputation without sidelining and objectifying the women in the story is anyone’s guess, but he could do a lot worse than cast Dune actor Rebecca Ferguson as the villain.
Perhaps the most important question in all of this is how much autonomy Villeneuve will actually have to execute his vision. When Amazon wrestled the Bond rights away from the Broccoli family earlier this year, it seemed as though the franchise might be destined to go the way of Marvel, in which every film is constructed via spreadsheets and corporate overreach rather than auteur-driven craft.
Villeneuve has been nominated for four Oscars, one for adapted screenplay, two for producing, and one for directing. In other words, he tends to have control over most aspects of a film’s production, and make the case for why that’s exactly how it should be. Whether he will insist on a similar level of autonomy or be relegated to substitute teacher status will likely determine the success or failure of this new Bond era.
