By The Marrakech Film Festival is underway and filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón was one of a number of high-profile guests in attendance this weekend where he reflected on several films of his, and one he almost got.
Perhaps the biggest reveal in his talk with Moroccan directors Alaa Eddine Aljem and Talal Selhami was that he turned down an offer to direct a James Bond film, an offer that seemed pretty far along.
However once the process initially kicked off he began to realise it wasn’t really for him, and then a fateful dinner with filmmaker Joel Coen led to him deciding not to go forward with the film. He says (via Variety):
“Ages ago I was offered a Bond film, and I said, ‘Yeah, cool. Maybe Bond. I am going to do one.’ And then when the process started and I was going to shoot all the dialogue and stuff, there was a [separate] team doing all the action scenes. It kind of felt very weird.
I was troubled about the idea of doing it. I had dinner with Joel Coen, and I said, ‘Joel, what do you think of Bond?’ And he said, ‘Oh cool, I enjoy Bond.’ I said, ‘Would you do a Bond film?’. [He said], ‘it probably falls into the category of a film I want to watch but not do.’ There I learned the lesson that some films I prefer to watch and not do.”
Which film is the obvious question, with the most likely suspect being “Quantum of Solace” – a movie Cuarón did become a part of as he voiced a Bolivian helicopter pilot in the movie. His long-time friend Guillermo del Toro also provided multiple background voices for that film.
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