Sam Mendes & Daniel Craig line up replacement projects

[Blowfeld]

Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig line up replacement projects for stalled Bond
Mendes eyes adaptation of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach while Craig is in talks for David Fincher remake of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Reviewing the situation … Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig. Photograph: Dave M Benett/Getty and c.Sony Pics/Everett / Rex Features

007 may be on holiday, but Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig are having no such extended break. The proposed director and star of the 23rd James Bond movie – at least until studio MGM hit financial problems – are lining up enough alternative work to keep them busy for a couple of years.

According to the Deadline blog, Mendes will next take on a stage musical version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which will arrive in the West End in 2011. Before that, he plans to directs a film version of the 2007 Ian McEwan novel On Chesil Beach, adapted by the author, with An Education's Carey Mulligan his current choice for the female lead.

Mendes is said to be so keen to direct McEwan's Booker-shortlisted novel about a botched honeymoon in 1963, he has told Disney he is no longer available to take on The Great and Powerful Oz, a planned Wizard of Oz retelling starring Robert Downey Jr. He also hopes to return to Bond once the MGM situation is resolved.

Craig, meanwhile, is in talks to take the lead role in David Fincher's crime thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a remake of Niels Arden Oplev's 2009 Swedish film, which was itself based on the bestselling novel of the same name by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his Millennium trilogy. Brad Pitt, Fincher's star in Se7en and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, was previously being tipped for the role.

The US film-maker is promising a different take to the earlier movie, which was released in the UK in March. Craig would play Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged investigative journalist facing a suspended prison term for libel, who teams up with a troubled young woman to probe the mysterious disappearance of an elderly billionaire's daughter. The project has franchise potential, with two more Swedish films based on original Larsson books on the way. Fincher's shoot is planned for September.

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[katied]

I said this on another thread but....Craig doesn't look at all like Blomkvist. Fincher should think older, maybe someone like Stellan Skarsgard(and not just because he's Swedish-he can do accents quite well so playing an American would probably not be a problem)

[Blowfeld]

There is some talk of making this a trilogy if successful, if that does happens then he will be done as 007 (or whatever it is he's been doing for the last 2 movies).

[katied]

There is some talk of making this a trilogy if successful, if that does happens then he will be done as 007 (or whatever it is he's been doing for the last 2 movies).

They've made all 3 books into films in Sweden already..I think they would be stupid to do the same with the English language version.

[Captain Nash]

There is some talk of making this a trilogy if successful, if that does happens then he will be done as 007 (or whatever it is he's been doing for the last 2 movies).

I wonder how many fingers are crossed by the membership of this forum?
Just imagine, it could only be a matter of weeks before Craig announces that he's no longer playing Bond.
Or it could be that he gives fans a schedule for Bond 23.
Time as always will tell.

[katied]

It's interesting.. The original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was quite good.It didn't get seen by many people, I think(I saw it-it was very good).The problem is, as I have said on other threads, is that it will lose something going to the U.S. A common occurance with foreign films that get English language remakes.

Even if it weren't Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist, I would be apprehensive to some degree. I think it's very ambitious of Fincher to sign up to do remakes of all the films. I would think think a wait and see attitude would be more wise, but that's just me.

[Captain Nash]

Sam Mendes was never confirmed as director though was he?
He was merely an advisor or consultant, who it looked like would eventually take the directing reins for Bond 23.

[Lord Shark]

Sam Mendes was never confirmed as director though was he?
He was merely an advisor or consultant, who it looked like would eventually take the directing reins for Bond 23.

In fact there have never been any quotes directly from himself. Only supposed statements by his 'publicist'.

Could be a false rumour circulated by someone in the business to tighten the vice on MGM.