‘Skyfall’ Heavily Influenced By ‘The Dark Knight’

With just a week to go before the release of the 23rd Bond film SKYFALL, the anticipation is reaching a high point with reviews being extremely positive. Many people seem to think that Sam Mendes has nailed the tone of the film perfectly, and now the director has revealed which film he leaned heavily on, and as it turns out, it’s another widely praised take on a familiar character:

In terms of what [Nolan] achieved, specifically THE DARK KNIGHT, the second movie, what it achieved, which is something exceptional. It was a game changer for everybody. We’re now in an industry where movies are very small or very big and there’s almost nothing in the middle,” he continued. “And it would be a tragedy if all the serious movies were very small and all the popcorn movies were very big and have nothing to say. And what Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with THE DARK KNIGHT, it’s not even set in our world. If felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11 and played on our fears and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting. That did help give me the confidence to take this movie in directions that, without THE DARK KNIGHT, might not have been possible. Because also, people go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty dark,’ but then you can point to THE DARK KNIGHT and go ‘Look at that – that’s a darker movie, and it took in a gazillion dollars!’ That’s very helpful. There’s also that thing – it’s clearly possible to make a dark movie that people want to see.

Looking at the trailer alone, you can see some of the Nolan-esque elements in the way that especially the London set scenes are filmed. I originally thought it was a risky move putting Mendes in charge of something as big as Bond, but the series needed a bit of a human touch after the disappointing QUANTUM OF SOLACE and when it comes to shaping proper characters, Sam Mendes is your guy. Of course, Christopher Nolan himself has previously expressed an interest in making a Bond film, a prospect that I imagine most people would welcome. As for SKYFALL, it looks like this could be one of the best James Bond outings yet, just one more week to go before we can all find out for ourselves.

SKYFALL is directed by Sam Mendes. It stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Helen McCrory

Source: The Playlist