With No Time to Die now playing around the world, I recently got to speak with director Cary Joji Fukunaga about making the latest James Bond movie. During the interview, he talked about what it’s really like behind-the-scenes when you make a film of this scale and scope, how James Bond is still a family run operation, if they thought about going with another title, why he convinced Daniel Craig to do longer takes than he was used to, why he picked Linus Sandgren to be his director pf photography, his first cut of the film, deleted scenes, why he wishes a story could be the length it needed to be and not have it dictated by a studio or network, if he’d do another James Bond movie, and how making a 007 film is two years and seven days a week of your time.

In addition, Fukunaga reveals the status of adapting Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon and how he would have shot more of No Time to Die using IMAX cameras, but Christopher Nolan was using most of them on Tenet. If you’re not aware, there are only six IMAX film cameras and when Nolan is shooting he gets to use most of them. Saying that, No Time to Die has forty to fifty minutes of IMAX footage so if you’re going to see the movie you should definitely see it in an IMAX theater.

Written by Fukunaga alongside Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, No Time to Die picks up with James Bond (Craig) having left active service. Of course, his peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain (Rami Malek) armed with dangerous new technology. No Time to Die sees the return of Léa Seydoux (Madeleine Swann) Ralph Fiennes (M), Ben Whishaw (Q), Naomie Harris (Miss Moneypenny), Christoph Waltz (Blofeld) and Rory Kinnear (Tanner). Joining them will be franchise newcomers Lashana Lynch, David Dencik, Billy Magnussen, and Ana de Armas.

no time to die daniel craig Cary Joji Fukunaga
Image via MGM

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Watch what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.

Cary Joji Fukunaga

  • What is the status of adapting Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon?
  • What surprised him about making a film on this scale and scope.
  • How much of James Bond is a family run operation.
  • Was the title ever going to be something else besides No Time to Die?
  • Why did he pick Linus Sandgren to be the director pf photography?
  • Did they ever talk about shooting more of No Time to Die using IMAX cameras?
  • Did he have a longer cut of the movie?
  • Did he have any deleted scenes?
  • Will fans ever see the stuff he cut out?
  • Why he wishes a story could be the length it needed to be and not have it dictated by the studios or networks.
  • Why he likes doing oners and the way Daniel Craig is a perfectionist.
  • How he convinced Craig to do some longer takes.
  • Would he make another Bond movie?
no-time-to-die Cary Joji Fukunaga Lashana Lynch
Image via MGM