“Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig today announced that due to creative differences Danny Boyle has decided to no longer direct Bond 25.”

The tweet that rocked MI-5, and left a production just months away from filming now floating in limbo.

Film director, Danny Boyle has exited stage left from the potential Bond follow-up. Now the director’s chair sits vacant. Who will pick up the baton and lead this troubled production of Bond 25  across the finish line?

Will it be someone with experience directing the dashing double O agent?  While there has not been any official announcement on a replacement to the director best known to me for introducing some of the fastest zombies to ever grace a screen outside of Zack Snyder’s epic zombie masterpiece “Dawn of The Dead.”

I give you my top three options to take on everyone’s favorite tuxedo-wearing badass.

Zack Snyder

It would be the perfect project for Snyder to redeem himself with after the troubled Justice League. I also like irony, and Justice League and 28 Days Later are just extremely enjoyable zombie films. So why not replace one director of fast-moving zombies with another? Snyder is certainly competent. Watchmen and 300 certainly showed his skill as a director. Maybe DC just wasn’t his thing. Too much Kryptonite.

It doesn’t mean he can’t deliver the goods when needed. Dawn of The Dead was a visceral film. It hit you in the gut. It pulled no punches as to who would join the zombie army, and had no qualms with giving Paid in Full’s Mekhi Phifer a zombie baby to deliver. Just when I thought I’d seen it all. 300 was largely a story about the underdogs. And whose more of an underdog than 007? Any other hard-drinking, philandering sharpshooters on the Queen’s payroll? I’ll tell you one thing 300’s Leonidas and Agent 007 have in common; both have a hard time following orders. Snyder just seems like a perfect fit.

Christopher Nolan

Why? Have you seen Inception? Have you seen the Dark Knight Rises opening sequence; the one where the masked man announces “the fire rises”? and concludes the midair hi-jacking and crashing of a plane by goons that looked right out of a 007 film. Goosebumps. Someone get this man a director’s chair and take my money while you’re at it. Besides, it’s time Nolan took the reigns of a preexisting project. His past work includes The Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and Dunkirk. Each of these was either an original idea, or in the case of Batman, a baked from scratch reboot.

He has proven he can move from one genre to the next and not lose a step while delivering a thrilling epic. It’s about time we fans get to see what 007 could be in the hands of a fan favorite director like Nolan. Each one of these films has something in common too. Something missing from a lot of films these days. Practical effects. Nolan is not a fan of CGI. God bless him. Amazingly the eighteen-wheeler that Batman flipped, and a lot of Inception was done practically. Yes. That scene right out of an M.C. Escher work was created by skilled craftsman that faithfully built a stairway that optically fooled us into thinking it was CGI. Also, Inception’s final snow fortress sequence featured what I felt was Nolan’s audition to direct the 007 franchise. Snowmobiles. Check. Accented bad guys. Check. Thrilling shootouts. Check. Last minute twists. Check. Nolan has at least expressed interest in directing the franchise.

“A Bond movie, definitely. I’ve spoken to the producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson over the years. I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it. Maybe one day that would work out. You’d have to be needed, if you know what I mean. It has to need reinvention; it has to need you. And they’re getting along very well.”

Nolan if you’re out there. If you can read these words, 007 needs you.

Cary Fukunaga

My last choice for a director would be the man who brought the creepy ass swamps of New Orléans, the Occult, and Nazi skinheads to HBO in the form of the meta-narrative True Detective. Besides, Fukunaga can shoot some thrilling sequences. Do you remember when the Nazi skinhead bikers thought it would be a great idea to kidnap a black drug poo-bah, impersonate police, recruit Rust Cohle, and take on an entire ghetto project while high out of their minds on coke? I do. That was some exciting TV.

He brings a bit of refreshment along with him. Neither True Detective or Beasts of No Nation were what I expected, and I mean that in a positive way. Thus far, his track record is pretty solid. His stories have blended genres together into something unique. Personally, I am interested in seeing how 007 would look with Fukunaga’s storytelling abilities. In fact, I’ll say that out of all the directors on this list, Fukunaga’s stories seem to get me personally invested in the characters a bit more. 

I’m sure further announcements loom on the horizon. 

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

  FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube! Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play