It was announced the other day that Marc Forster — director of Monster’s Ball (2001), Finding Neverland (2004), Stay (2005), Stranger Than Fiction (2006) and the upcoming The Kite Runner, among others — will direct the sequel to Casino Royale (2006).
Forster, who was born in Germany and raised in Switzerland, is the first director of an “official” James Bond film to come from outside the British Commonwealth; until now, all the directors have come from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and even Canada.
Forster, who was born in 1969, is also the first director of a James Bond film to be born after the franchise began; indeed, he is the first Bond director to be born in the latter half of the 20th century.
Forster is also the youngest director of a James Bond film ever; he will be 39 when his movie comes out next year, whereas Guy Hamilton was 42 when Goldfinger came out in 1964.
Forster will also be only the second director of a James Bond film to be younger than his leading man — and this, despite the fact that Daniel Craig, who was born in 1968, is still the youngest James Bond since the 1960s! The only other Bond director to be younger than his leading man was John Glen (b. 1932), who directed the last three Roger Moore (b. 1927) films in the early 1980s.
BTW, Martin Campbell was 66 when he directed Casino Royale — easily the oldest director of a James Bond film to date. The first 20 films were all directed by men in their 40s or 50s, but the first film to star Daniel Craig was directed by a man in his 60s, and the second will be directed by a man in his 30s — thus Daniel Craig is going from the oldest director in the series to the youngest.
Another fun factoid: Halle Berry won her Oscar for Monster’s Ball, which was directed by Forster, while she was working on Die Another Day (2002), the last of the pre-reboot James Bond films.
Click here for some of the data underlying this trivial post.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In