A lot has been said about the future of the James Bond film franchise following the events of No Time to Die in 2021. The actors who portray James Bond are always changing, yet the character is never killed off, just recast. However, No Time to Die changed that when Daniel Craig’s version of the spy was killed off. Whoever takes over the role in the future has big shoes to fill, and the same goes for whoever steps into the director’s chair. Directors for James Bond films also rotate over the years, and one name who is often attached to whatever Bond project is next is Christopher Nolan. He’s shown a penchant for helming movies with big budgets, delivering on cool concepts, and getting results at the worldwide box office. On paper, Nolan feels like the perfect choice to direct a Bond movie for a variety of reasons.
One look at Christopher Nolan’s filmography shows that he can handle a major franchise, evidenced by his stellar trilogy of Batman movies. Another look at that filmography reveals that Nolan has already kind of helmed a Bond film, and it just so happens to be his most confusing project.
Christopher Nolan films can feature high concepts that are difficult to grasp, from Memento to Inception to Interstellar, yet his hardest movie to fully understand is Tenet. Released in 2020, the story centers on a CIA agent who gets recruited to a secret organization to learn the origin of dangerous objects that are traveling backward through time. It’s a wild premise that doesn’t come with an easy explanation, but regardless of your thoughts on Tenet itself, the similarities it shares with James Bond films are clear.
In the special features of Tenet, Christopher Nolan discusses how it was important for a story with such high stakes to be a global event. He succeeded as the characters travel to Italy, Ukraine, Mumbai, and more. That’s exactly the kind of globetrotting action that Bond is known for. There are also scenes where the main characters dress the part, wearing tailored suits and looking like a million bucks, which is another James Bond staple. Even the villain being a wealthy oligarch feels like it was pulled from the James Bond playbook.
James Bond movies feature incredible cold open scenes, with even lesser-received entries, like Spectre, having spectacular opening sequences. Tenet pulls that off, with the opening heist at the opera house in Kyiv coming across as something special. It’s exhilarating; you never quite know what’s going on, and the hero of the story comes across looking effortlessly cool.
In a lot of ways, Tenet is everything you could hope for from a Christopher Nolan take on James Bond. It’s way more confusing than any Bond flick, yet that element is crucial to almost everything Christopher Nolan does. A straightforward spy movie wouldn’t feel like classic Nolan, so doing a spy flick with an outlandish concept like Tenet is basically Nolan’s ideal version of a Bond project. He doesn’t need to do Bond if he’s already done a his own take on it.
Interestingly, there were reports that Christopher Nolan came close to directing a James Bond movie. Before Denis Villeneuve was selected to take on the reins of the franchise’s next installment, Nolan was being discussed. After making Tenet, Nolan apparently pitched his vision for Bond, which included going back to the ’60s and spanning two films. However, talks between him and producer Barbara Broccoli broke down when they wouldn’t compromise on giving him final cut, which Bond directors typically don’t get, yet Nolan always has on his projects.
Ultimately, Amazon was said to be considering changing the rules for Nolan, only to pivot and go with Denis Villeneuve. While Villeneuve will indeed be behind the camera for the next Bond movie, nothing is confirmed for the franchise beyond that installment. That means the door is likely still open for negotiations with Christopher Nolan to spark back up. He’s still clearly interested, evidenced by the Bond influences in his films, including Tenet, and by the fact that he’s still talking about the franchise, recently naming Timothy Dalton as his favorite Bond actor.
The jury remains out on whether or not we’ll ever truly see a James Bond movie directed by Christopher Nolan. Tenet has shown us that Nolan would be great at is and it stands as a perfect look at what a Nolan Bond flick could feel like. The film isn’t on any streaming service, but it’s available to rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
