The traits that make Wes Anderson so distinctive — colorful, quirky compositions, eccentric soundtracks, meticulous attention to detail, and recurring collaborations with actors like Bill Murray and Owen Wilson — hardly make him the man to direct a blockbuster action movie. But that doesn't mean he hasn't considered what he could do were he given the reins of the next James Bond film. In an interview with The New York Times' David Carr, Anderson put forward his own 007 pitch (discussion starts at 1:03:00 below), where the suave special agent is left twiddling his thumbs in a world that no longer has a need for his expertise. It might all be missing a bit of the action inherent in a James Bond flick, but we're sure Anderson could make it work if he set his mind to it. We're guessing Bill Murray would play a contemplative, aging Bond alongside Tilda Swinton in the role of M.

I’ve had this Bond movie, you know, this is probably part of the thing… I had this one I wanted to do called Mission Deferred and my idea is that this is James Bond… this was a few years ago, the Cold War is over and there’s no gig. And… I had this idea… he goes in to see M and M is on the phone, and he’s walking around M’s office, you know, and finally says [uses hand gestures to say that he'll come back when M is off the phone]. And you know… the gadgetry is like he has a great coffee machine, and that maybe he gets into a bar fight or something because he has a license to kill but there’s [nothing to do]. And so, you know, I never got the call.



