BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Director Sam Mendes has James Bond back in his sights after Skyfall's phenomenal box office success



Moneypenny: Actress Naomie Harris played Miss Moneypenny in Bafta-winning Bond flick Skyfall

Bond has never been bigger, thanks to the phenomenal box-office success of Skyfall, directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes.



And people have been asking whether he will return to direct the next one, known for now as Bond 24.



He had initially been reluctant because screenwriter John Logan was planning to write a two-part story that would have been shot back-to-back, which would have taken four years out of the director’s life.



It would have meant long stretches for the cast, too - led by Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes as the new M, Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw playing Q.



That plan has been jettisoned, and Bond 24 and 25 will be stand-alone pictures.



Mendes hasn’t firmly made up his mind about directing another Bond, but I’m reliably told he’s ‘75 per cent’ of the way towards doing it.



At present, Logan’s thoughts for Bond 24 are in the form of two treatment papers outlining a rough idea of the plot.



So, in theory, Mendes is on board, but wants to see the finished script before he fully commits.



The only people who have seen the Bond 24 blueprint are Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (the extraordinary producing duo behind the 007 franchise), Mendes, Craig and a handful of key executives at Sony and MGM.



Once everything falls into place, pre-production on Bond 24 could start late this year or early 2014, though Mendes couldn’t work full-time until he has finished directing Simon Russell Beale in King Lear, which opens at the National Theatre next January.



Meanwhile, the director is putting together the musical version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which begins performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on May 18.



Skyfall triumphed at the EE British Film Academy Awards by taking best British film, while composer Thomas Newman won best original score.



In Los Angeles, cinematographer Roger Deakins collected the top honour at the American Society of Cinematographers for his work on the movie.

Deakins is also up for an Oscar, and Skyfall has four other nominations, including best song for Adele.

Success: Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes is thought to be considering returning to direct another James Bond film

Triumph: Skyfall, directed by Mendes, scooped the EE British Film Academy Award for best British film

By the way, I thought it was classy of Mendes to pay tribute at the Baftas to the 1,292 cast and crew who made Skyfall.

When Alice met the lost boy

Magical: Dame Judi Dench is starring in Peter and Alice at the Noel Coward Theatre

You know it’s going to be a sizzling season when two of our greatest theatrical dames - Judi Dench and Helen Mirren - open in new West End plays within days of each other.



Helen starts performances in Peter Morgan’s The Audience which Stephen Daldry is directing at the Gielgud from tonight.



Then Judi begins previews in Peter And Alice by John Logan at the Noel Coward from March 9.



Logan also wrote her final bow as M in Skyfall. Her Peter And Alice leading man is Ben Whishaw, who played Q in the Bond film.



Peter And Alice is the second play in the inaugural season of the Michael Grandage Company.



Grandage and his partner James Bierman kicked off with Simon Russell Beale in the rediscovered gem Privates On Parade at the Gielgud Theatre.



Judi told me she was ‘very much’ enjoying portraying the real life character of Alice Liddell Hargreaves who, when a young girl, was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.



Whishaw plays Peter Llewelyn Davies, who was the basis for J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. The play is about what happened when the two were introduced at an exhibition on Lewis Carroll that Davies organised in London in 1932.



‘John Logan wondered what they talked about,’ Grandage explained. ‘Out of his imagination has come a conversation where they absolutely, deeply and profoundly explore two characters who are part of the collective imagination of most people who have read those books.

‘It’s about what happened when they grew up. It’s also about how they dealt with celebrity.



‘They were real people made famous as children — then they grew up.’



Will Argo be Oscar's favourite? Oscars voters have until Tuesday to cast their ballots. Ben Affleck’s stand-out Argo has won everything, including best film Bafta. Affleck is not nominated in the directing category, so no one knows how this will affect the movie’s best picture chances. Chances: Will Ben Affleck's acclaimed Argo scoop the best film award at the Oscars? Will Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln grab the title, or will David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook? And let’s not rule out Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi. But I sense the odds are in favour of Argo. Emmanuelle Riva won best actress at Bafta over Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. It looks like Lawrence on Oscar night, with Chastain close. But if the vote splits, it goes to Riva or Naomi Watts.

Only 17 out of 60 best actress Baftas have gone to UK actresses, but the bulk to Europeans, so perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised by the Riva win.



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