Columbia Pictures / MGMSam Mendes is looking to enlist On Her Majesty's Secret Service again.
After directing the latest James Bond adventure, Skyfall, to over $1 billion in global box office receipts, the filmmaker is in talks with Sony Pictures and MGM about coming back for the sequel, 007's 24th outing.
Per Deadline, despite his earlier pronouncements that he wouldn't be returning to helm the next 007 film so he can concentrate on theater projects, the 47-year-old Mendes appears to have had a change of heart and in looking to jump back into the director's chair when production on the next movie commences next year.
The website suggested that producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson kept the lines of communication open with Mendes and opted to wait for him to finish up work on his new West End musical based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as a production of King Lear.
The news comes a couple of weeks after reports surfaced that the 50-year-old spy franchise's minders at Eon Productions had quietly reached out to Dark Knight Rises helmer and avid Bond fan Christopher Nolan about possibly taking the reins once he's finished with his sci-fi epic Interstellar. Other directors' names supposedly being touted for the job include Ang Lee, Tom Hooper and Nicolas Winding Refn.
A rep for Mendes was unavailable to comment.
Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan is currently writing the script for Bond 24, which will find Daniel Craig once again reprising his role as the suave superspy. It's currently being targeted for a 2016 release.