The game of extremely handsome musical chairs that is staffing up for the next James Bond film continued apace today. The two biggest question marks — who will star as the secret agent extraordinaire, and who will direct him in the new picture — remain unresolved, but a new development may hold a clue as to the future of the franchise. A great ruckus was raised over the fact that the Bond property has entered the marketplace for a new studio overseer, and while the new management has not yet been decided, it’s starting to look like Warner Bros. has the upper hand. And it all has to do with Christopher Nolan.

While a studio distributor has yet to be decided, ScreenRant noted today that Nolan’s Syncopy production house will handle the nitty-gritty of making the film. (Syncopy’s recurring partnership with Warner hints that this could be a package deal.) BirthMoviesDeath noted that IMDb Pro had listed Syncopy as the production company for Bond 25, and an independently operating James Bond fan account then confirmed that information with the site. Eon Productions has shepherded almost all Bond movies through production (Never Say Never Again is the only one they missed), so the shift to Syncopy could signify a massive regime change. Our next Bond could be an entirely different creature.

So Nolan, who has stated in the past that he’s interested in directing a Bond flick, will be involved as a producer, at least. How long until he goes all-in and directs the thing himself as his next big project? He’s been out of the franchise game for a minute. Surely, everyone with money at stake wants Nolan to do to Bond what he did for Batman. Stay tuned, Nolanheads.

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