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News that Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is favourite to direct 'Bond 25' has excited fans of his previous hits Sicario, Prisoners and Arrival.
Though Sam Mendes has counted himself out the race and Christopher Nolan rumours have gone quiet, are we being a little too swift to rule out some other visionaries who could shake up the 007 franchise as we know it?
We think so. Here's what the next Bond film might look like under five directors who (tragically) aren't in contention.
Richard Curtis
Floppy haired James Hugo Rupert Bond lives in a charming townhouse in leafy Islington. By day he runs a crumpet cafe, by night he marks up his ragged copies of Keats. At yet another dinner party plied with Viognier he meets Margot Moneypenny (Keira Knightly) and confesses he's a secret agent disguised as a posh twat. After an over-the-top love declaration they marry, have 2.5 children and track down international criminals together at the weekends - within the M25 of course.
Tim Burton
Before he was an orphaned killer, there was young Jimmy Bond, the hollow-eyed, pale skinned boy who grew up in a bird menagerie surrounded by fantastical creatures and a vast talking apple tree (Helena Bonham Carter). One day he meets Quintin - Q for short - a bookish child whose father it transpires is actually incredibly senior at the British Secret Service. They grow up fast.
Michael Bay
JB bursts onto your screen in a giant explosion of fire, smoke, crashing noise and difficult to follow action sequences. Feast your eyes on a cast with tans as oily as the cars that flip across the screen and an all American honey (Jennifer Love Hewitt) with a strained love story. Is he an agent? Is there a plot here? Nobody knows.
Wes Anderson
In millennial pink apartment with green armchairs lives J.B Ond, who embarks on a long bicycle trip to Poland to find his family's stolen ginger snap recipe. The hallowed biscuit instructions were stolen by a villainous harmonica-playing pâtissier (Edward Norton) with a penchant for orange top hats, taxidermy and casual mass-murder.
Woody Allen
Joaquín Bónd lives in a dusty finca in Andalusia with his cousin Mateo (Javier Bardem) who plays the Alhambra guitar every night to the setting Spanish sun while gnawing jamón ibérico de bellota. When an American woman visits their local taverna the pair attempt to uncover her mysterious past and find she is (a-ha!) an Italian spy, posing undercover for her mafia boss.
