Well this would be a first. According to The Guardian, “The Night Manager” director Susanne Bier is on a shortlist of directors being eyed for the next James Bond film.
The Guardian nabbed the news from Radio Times, which reported that sources close to the project confirmed that “Bier is among a ‘handful’ of names making up producer Barbara Broccoli’s shortlist to inherit the directing gig from [Sam] Mendes.”
It would help Bier’s cause that “The Night Manager” star Tom Hiddleston is allegedly one of the top choices to take over the role from Daniel Craig. Despite a passionate campaign by fans to offer the role to a woman or a person of color, it sounds like James Bond will remain a dude.
But putting the film in the hands of a female director would help assuage that disappointment.
As The Guardian detailed, “Bier is best known as a feature director for her Oscar-nominated drama ‘In a Better World,’ a thriller about a Swedish doctor working in a Sudanese refugee camp. Her other films include ‘Things We Lost in the Fire,’ an addiction drama starring Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry and ‘Love is All You Need,’ a sunny comedy in which former Bond Pierce Brosnan woos a cancer patient while on a getaway in Italy.”
If we can’t have a female Bond, a history-making female director will do.
