‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight to pen next James Bond film

The next James Bond film has seeming found its scriptwriter in Steven Knight.

• READ MORE: Here’s everything we know about the ‘Peaky Blinders’ movie

Per a Deadline report, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has been tapped to pen an upcoming Bond film for Amazon MGM Studios. The studio has since confirmed the news via an Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amazon MGM Studios (@amazonmgmstudios)

Ahead of the Bond film, Knight has written and is producing the highly anticipated Peaky Blinders film, The Immortal Man. In May, he also confirmed that a new Peaky Blinders series is in development, and will be filmed in Birmingham. Besides Peaky Blinders, Knight is also known for writing projects such as Locke, Taboo, A Thousand Blows and more.

Further details surrounding the next James Bond film have yet to be revealed, though the studio in June confirmed that Dune and Arrival filmmaker Denis Villeneuve will be directing the upcoming instalment.

Currently there is no official release date, casting, or title for the next Bond movie, which would be the 26th in the franchise. Recently, Villeneuve revealed his favourite 007 movie, describing himself as “a major Bond fan”.

As for agent 007 himself, the search is on for the next Bond, after Daniel Craig made his final appearance in the role in 2021’s No Time To Die. Most recently, fan-favourite Taron Egerton seemingly took himself out of the running for the coveted 007 role: “I don’t think I’m a good choice for it. I think I’m too messy for that.”

Egerton went on to explain: “James Bond is quite an undertaking and I think, one, as far as I’m aware, nobody’s asking me to do it. But also, it’s possibly not quite the thing that would make me happiest. I do think it’s a big old undertaking, it kind of consumes your life, a role like that.”

Other fan-favourite actors who are reportedly being eyed for the next Bond film are Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson, Australian Saltburn star Jacob Elordi, and Marvel actor Tom Holland. While Aaron Taylor-Johnson and perennial fan favourite Henry Cavill have long been among fan’s top castings, they appear too old for the role, at least compared to the other actors in the running.

In March, it was announced that the long-serving producers of the films, Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, had stepped away from the creative process and handed over control to Amazon MGM Studios, ending over 60 years of the Broccoli family’s control of the Bond estate.

Bond fans have not reacted kindly to the news of the franchise’s sale, with some predicting that Amazon will “ruin” the series by over-saturating the market with “mediocre spin-offs”.

The post ‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight to pen next James Bond film appeared first on NME.