Skyfall Cinematographer Roger Deakins Won't Be Back For Bond 24

News
By Eric Eisenberg
published

As I explained in my review released just prior to the movie hitting theaters back in 2012, Sam Mendes' Skyfall is a great film for many, many reasons. The story does fascinating things with the James Bond character, puts the franchise in an interesting modern context, and features one of the greatest Bond villains ever in Javier Bardem's Silva. Perhaps its greatest asset, though, is the cinematography of genius Roger Deakins. There are few in Hollywood that can frame and light a shot quite like Deakins can, and the guy put on a master class with Skyfall, earning his tenth Academy Award nomination. The movie gave us a lot to look forward to in the future of the series, especially because Mendes is returning to direct, but sadly the same thing can't be said for Deakins.

Discovered by The Playlist, Kristopher Tapley, who is a writer for HitFix's In Contention section, recently took to his Twitter account to reveal that he recently got to meet with Deakins, but in the process learned some sad news about his future with James Bond:

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In light of this news, let's take a minute to appreciate Deakins' breathtaking work on Skyfall, shall we?

This obviously leaves a significant hole in Mendes' production team, and while the director and the cinematographer have a strong working relationship - having also collaborated on Revolutionary Road and Jarhead - there are definitely some other great options. Ell Kuras, who previously made films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind, and Blow previously worked with Mendes on 2009's Away We Go - could she possibly be up for the job?

Bond 24 is coming together faster than you may expect - especially given the extreme length of time between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall due to MGM's bankruptcy. John Logan is working on the screenplay and Sony has already announced that they plan to have the movie in theaters on November 6, 2015. Daniel Craig will be back to play 007 for the fourth time, while Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomi Harris are expected to return as M, Q, and Moneypenny, respectively.

Eric Eisenberg
Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.