Sorry Christopher Nolan fans – the acclaimed director absolutely won't be directing the next James Bond film.
Nolan, whose filmography includes last year's hugely successful (and now Oscar-nominated) World War II film Dunkirk, says that he regularly finds himself linked to the franchise while appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, but he has "categorically" ruled himself out of directing the next film.
"I won't be the man," Nolan said on the radio programme. "No, categorically."
His answer came after choosing John Barry's Score for the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service as one of his Desert Island Discs, and talk naturally turned to whether Nolan would be interested in working on the franchise.
"I think every time they hire a new director I'm rumoured to be doing it," he continued.
This time around his name was rumoured alongside Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villeneuve, with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli adding that they haven't ruled out hiring a female director and The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman throwing his hat in the ring too.
But while he's ruled himself out of Bond 25, and Daniel Craig's fifth and rumoured final appearance as Bond, he adds that he'd love to work on the franchise one day.
"I'd love to make a Bond film at some point and I think those producers – Barbara and Michael – they do a tremendous job and Sam Mendes has done a terrific job the last couple of films, so they don't particularly need me," he said.
"But I've always been inspired by the films and would love to do one someday."
Speaking to Digital Spy last year, Nolan said he thought you'd only take on a beast like Bond if you could re-invent it a bit.
"I love the character, I love the films, I've been very inspired by the films as anyone who's seen my films will find embarrassingly obvious," he said.
"But you'd only take on a franchise like that if you could bring something completely new to it, if that were needed. And I think at the moment they're doing fantastically well without me
Daniel Craig will be returning as Bond in 2019, with all further details yet to be confirmed.
