Could Christopher Nolan Direct a James Bond Film?

With 'The Dark Knight Rises' about to hit theaters, Christopher Nolan is starting to hit the publicity circuit. As all reporters are now trained to ask "What are you doing next?" Nolan has let slip that his Howard Hughes project is dead, but that he'd love to helm a James Bond film.

That's what he told Empire, at least (via The Playlist). Nolan said: "It would have to be the right situation and the right time in their cycle of things." Here's the thing, we'd love this to happen - though Nolan has always been a bit shakey with action scenes - but we're reminded of when Steven Spielberg mentioned wanting to direct a Bond film. Roger Moore talked about it in his autobiography (as relayed to the Daily Mail):

'I was rather excited at this news and went looking for Broccoli (film producer Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli) to tell him. But Broccoli, who steered the Bond franchise over three decades, shook his head and asked, 'Do you know how much of a percentage he'd want?'

Moore lamented: 'It's always been policy that no Bond director ever got a slice of the box office profits, so Spielberg went off and made Indiana Jones who I reckon to be a period James Bond!'

After Nolan's tremendous success with Batman and with 'Inception,' it seems unlikely that it would be worth it for him to take up the reigns of a franchise that's usually helmed by for-hire talents. Really, only Sam Mendes can be seen as a talent in the prime of his career going to direct Bond, and even there that's questionable (his last couple movies haven't been hits).

Perhaps the people behind Bond have relaxed their policies, but when it comes to a cash-cow like Bond, why would they? And for someone like Nolan, it's probably not worth it. But it's a nice pipe dream, and we'd love to be proven wrong... as long as Nolan gets a great second unit director.