After directing Daniel Craig’s James Bond briefly in his Olympics opening ceremony, Danny Boyle was set to return to the world of 007 as the director of Bond 25 – but that all went awry when he left the project in August last year, owing to creative differences with Craig and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. His proposed version, with a script by his longtime writing collaborator John Hodge, was abandoned, with True Detective and Maniac director Cary Joji Fukunaga stepping in at the helm, and regular Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade back on scripting duties (with extra polish from Scott Z Burns).
Speaking to Empire for our 30th birthday celebrations – Boyle is one of the directors on our 30 Adventurous Filmmakers list – the British movie maestro took on your reader questions. Among them was Ben Gummery, asking: ‘What would your James Bond film have been like?’ According to Boyle, it would have been… well, really good.
“What John [Hodge] and I were doing, I thought, was really good,” Boyle responded. “It wasn’t finished, but it could have been really good.” The filmmaker added that he ‘learned quite a lot about himself’ from the experience, and has no ill feeling towards Fukunaga or the project's current iteration. “We were working very, very well, but they didn’t want to go down that route with us,” he explained on his departure. “So we decided to part company, and it would be unfair to say what it was because I don’t know what Cary [Joji Fukunaga] is going to do. I got a very nice message from him and I gave him my best wishes… It is just a great shame.”
Since Boyle left the project, it’s undergone a few delays – but as it currently stands, the film will now arrive on 8 April 2020, possibly with Bohemian Rhapsody’s Rami Malek as its villain. Bond 25 is reported to be shooting under the production title Shatterhand – though Barbara Broccoli has debunked claims that it will be the film’s official name.
Read Empire’s full Danny Boyle interview in the new Avengers: Endgame issue of the magazine, on sale now and available to buy online with the cover of your choice – Avengers.
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