Skyfall Director Sam Mendes Explains How Production Delays Helped The James Bond Film

Skyfall was released 10 years ago today and made a James Bond franchise first with a $1 billion global box office and went home with two Academy Awards. It brought Bond back to the super spy we've known for decades, complete with Astin Martin and Q Branch.

The film wasn't without its problems though. It was coming off a lukewarm outing with Quantum of Solace and was filmed during a time when studio MGM was facing an uncertain future, forcing production to take an immediate break. The situation mirrored by what had happened between The Living Daylights and GoldenEye almost 20 years prior, leaving some to wonder if Bond could still deliver at the box office.

Director Sam Mendes revealed to The Hollywood Reporter how he and his team were able to pull off one of the biggest Bond movies ever, in the midst of a long delay, and how it cemented Daniel Craig's legacy as that character.

"When all this was announced, the cover story at Entertainment Weekly at the time read: 'Is James Bond Dead?'", recalled Mendes (via THR). "People forget these things very quickly, but MGM went bankrupt and the thought among the town at that time was 'oh, it's all over. They can't afford it, that's the end of Bond'."

Production was shut down for 10 months because of the MGM bankruptcy, and legally, the crew couldn't continue with filming. However, behind the scenes, Mendes and his writing team, including Bond alumni Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, went back and addressed the script and tightened it where they thought they needed to.

"At a very early stage, there was a treatment, but it ended with the death of M. And that was one of the things that hooked me in," Mendes said. "Everyone was feeling that, with Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G. Wilson's] willingness to handle the character that way, that one decision, in a sense, changed the entire franchise. It acknowledged the passage of time, arguably for the first time ever, in the series. It acknowledged that they are mortal, that they are going to age and probably die."

The latter statement was explored more and actually part of the plot of the 25th Bond film, No Time To Die, which finally hit theaters last year and brought Craig's time in the tuxedo to an end.

But the biggest, or most important, thing to come from Skyfall for Mendes is its legacy and how well it was, and continues to be, received and thought of. "The experience of shooting Skyfall was trying, but the response to it, in terms of how many people went to see it, was immensely gratifying."

Skyfall, along with the entire James Bond library, is available to stream on Prime Video.

Sign up for Amazon Prime

Get a free 30-day trial to claim these free games.

See details at Amazon