Right now, Denis Villeneuve is one of the hottest directors in the game. With Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049 on his impressive resume, there was talk of the hugely talented Canadian tackling 007 for the upcoming Bond 25. Sadly, Villeneuve would have to turn down that gig, but he’s now talked about how he’d love to tackle Bond, James Bond at some point down the line.

If you remember back, the past few years had seen Villeneuve regularly talking about how his dream project would be a new take on Frank Herbert’s Dune – itself, of course, previously brought to big-screen life by David Lynch in 1984. So, when the chance to helm a Dune reboot came along, Villeneuve was eager to tackle the project, which meant he had to turn down an offer to direct Bond 25.

Speaking to ScreenCrush about the possibility of one day overseeing a Bond movie, Villeneuve enthused, “Listen, I would love to do a Bond movie. I think Daniel Craig is a fantastic actor and I would like to, but several months ago I came in to do Dune and I engaged myself. I committed myself and I’m someone that doesn’t step back. I remember I committed to do Enemy, they came with Prisoners, I said, ‘I need to do Enemy first,’ and I had to break to bend the schedule. I did the same with Arrival and Blade Runner. I did Blade Runner, one of my conditions was that I would have time to do Arrival first. Once I commit, I commit. When Legendary offered me to do Dune, on a silver plate, which was like my dream project that I’m dreaming to do for 30 years? I said yes right away. I want to honour that. It doesn’t mean the movie will happen, maybe in six months the movie will. Bond is an old fantasy of mine, but I can’t be in two places at the same time. It’s a strange year because I would love to do a James Bond. I need to focus.”

Of course, whether anything further develops on the Bond front for Villeneuve over the next few years remains to be seen, but right now this is a director who can seemingly do no wrong. The prospect of him tackling this iconic character is one that certainly intrigues us, so let’s hope something more comes of it once Villeneuve’s schedule clears up.