Bond Flick Loses Director Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle's tenure as a Bond director ended up being short-lived. The 007 Twitter account on Tuesday announced that "Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, and Daniel Craig today announced that due to creative differences, Danny Boyle has decided to no longer direct Bond 25." Wilson and Broccoli are the film's producers. Variety reports MGM had long wanted Boyle to helm a Bond flick; he was selected to fill the shoes emptied by Sam Mendes, who directed 2012's Skyfall and Spectre, which was out three years later.

Variety's sources say Eon Productions and Boyle had been in the process of casting the Bond girl and villain for the film, which has been referred to as Bond 25. Production was to start in December with an Oct. 25, 2019, release date in the UK; wider release was to follow two weeks later. No word on whether those dates will shift. The Hollywood Reporter's take: "Boyle was seen as a natural choice thanks to his Oscar pedigree as the filmmaker behind Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. It was also viewed as a surprise that the filmmaker, who had avoided franchises in the past, would board the Bond machine." (More James Bond stories.)