Sam Mendes Done with James Bond After 'Spectre'

It's crazy to think that it was three years ago in November when director Sam Mendes completely knocked it out of the James Bond park with Skyfall.

The film was not only one the best in the James Bond series but also just a great film, period. And oh yeah, it made over $1 billion at the box office and nearly landed a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.

With all that, it's hard to imagine trying to top that kind of success, by Mendes is indeed doing it with this year's next James Bond film, Spectre, once again starring Daniel Craig as 007.

However, coming straight from the horse's mouth himself, Mendes has declared he's done with Bond after this (though for the record, he said that after Skyfall too).

Speaking with BBC News, the director states:

"I said no to the last one and then ended up doing it, and was pilloried by all my friends, but I do think this is probably it. I don't think I could go down that road again. You do have to put everything else on hold. It really is more a lifestyle choice than a job."

While the plot is still a near mystery (we know Bond is trying to track a secret organization), Mendes states the flick is actually bigger than Skyfall in terms of location shooting:

"This is a bigger movie than Skyfall. It's shot in more places - we were in Mexico City and Tangiers and northern Sahara and Rome and the Alps and London. It's been an enormous undertaking."

Finally, to probably not many Bond's fans surprise, he reveals the theme song for the film has actually already been recorded, but won't say who the artist is or the title:

"I can say that the song's been recorded and it's fantastic and I'm very excited about it. You won't have to wait long."

One thing to note is that this will actually be the 24th Bond film with, obviously, the next being the milestone 25. I wonder if that will allure Mendes to come back a third and final time, and maybe even be Craig's swan song to the franchise as well. We'll see.

Spectre also stars film stars Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Wishaw as Q, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser, Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra, David Bautista as Mr. Hinx and Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann.

The film opens stateside November 6th, but in the U.K. over 10 days earlier on October 26th. Damn Brits (well, he is your character so, that sort of makes sense).

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

Source: BBC News