‘Bond 23′ On Hold For Now. Sam Mendes Directing?

Due to major financials troubles of MGM, looks like another franchise is taking the hit. Bond fansite MI6 reports that ‘Bond 23′ is on hold for now until the financial woes have been resolved. But then there is a director attached to it?

Producer Michael Wilson says:

“Well, our timeline’s a little up in the air what with the situation at MGM, so we have to be flexible. We just don’t know enough about the situation to comment, but we know it’s uncertain.”

Bond is pretty much the biggest asset in MGM’s inventory so they have to be careful of not losing it to some other studio. The film had a November 2011 release date set but that looks to be out of the question for now.

However, new reports are suggesting something odd. Even though the movie might be on hold, director Sam Mendes is in negotiations to direct the film. Sam Mendes is the Oscar winning director of movies like ‘American Beauty’, ‘Revolutionary Road’ and others. He’s a brilliant director indeed. Only problem is he’s not an action director.

And that is exactly what plagued the last Bond outing ‘Quantum of Solace’. Sequel to the brilliant and fresh reboot ‘Casino Royale’, Solace was hollow and empty and had some of the poorly shot and edited action sequences. Not a surprise, since the director there was Marc Foster. A fine director but of a completely different genre (The Kite Runner, Stranger than Fiction). Hiring action directors w0uld always help the Bournesque style the Bond series has moved towards. But looks like the studio has something else in mind.

But the biggest question here is – how are they putting the movie on hold as well as negotiating a director? Time will tell.