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  1. Mendes' On Chesil Beach postponed – Updated

    By Kevin Wells on 2010-09-13

    As MGM and Spyglass Entertainment continue hashing out a deal and prepare for a prepackaged bankruptcy soon, potential Bond 23 scheduling conflicts have opened up a little with news that director Sam Mendes’ next film, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel On Chesil Beach has been postponed due to wary investors who fear the film may post lackluster box office results. Specifically, Mendes’ last three films have not performed well despite good reviews and critical acclaim. A spokesperson for Mendes’ company Neal Street Productions said, “It has been postponed. It all happened very quickly. Pre-production work over-ran. There need to be leaves on the trees.”

    Sam Mendes Worldwide Box Office Performance

    • 1999: American Beauty – Winner of 5 Academy Awards including Best Director – $356,296,601
    • 2002: Road to Perdition – Won 1 Academy Award, starred Daniel Craig – $181,001,478
    • 2005: Jarhead – $96,889,998
    • 2008: Revolutionary Road – Nominated for 3 Academy Awards – $75,226,021
    • 2009: Away We Go – $13,563,832

    On Chesil Beach was set to star An Education’s Academy Award nominated Carey Mulligan.

    James Bond fans shouldn’t view this as a good thing however because Mendes is still quite busy. He is still set to direct William Shakespeare’s Richard III for stage starring Kevin Spacey. The production will open at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater in early 2012. He’s also supposedly in the running to direct Suzanne Collins’ widely acclaimed science fiction novel The Hunger Games potentially starring Chloe Moretz of Kick-Ass fame (Hit-Girl). However all that said, it’s still unknown whether Mendes will direct the inevitable Bond 23 even once MGM clears it’s financial hurdles, and more important than Mendes is Daniel Craig’s schedule. Craig is currently filming Cowboys & Aliens for which he has an option for a sequel and will soon star in the English adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which will begin filming later this year.

    September 14th – Update

    According to Deadline Mendes last Friday took himself out of the running to direct The Hunger Games because of MGM’s recent progress. They further speculate that Bond 23 could potentially start shooting in late summer or fall 2011.

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