Danny Boyle endorses Jack O'Connell as the next James Bond

Boyle engaged in more Bond-adjacent chatter during a Zurich masterclass, where he prattled on about O’Connell, whose presence generates the kind of excitement one would expect from a certain 00 Agent and exemplifies why the director thinks he’s so great in Ink. (In the film, O’Connell plays Larry Lamb, the British tabloid editor of The Sun.) “Have you seen [the 2024 Amy Winehouse biopic] Back To Black? It’s a wonderful film. He plays the boyfriend, and that’s an impossible part. It was an incredible performance,” Boyle told the Zurich audience. “I thought he should play Larry Lamb because he’s weird. Despite the fact that he’s playing a monster, you’re still interested in him. You’re still intrigued by him, and he doesn’t repel you. It was true of the guy in Ink, because by the end of the film, his moral conscience—if there ever was one—has dissolved entirely as he pursues success. And you still have to root for him.”

Laying it on a bit, Boyle also drew favorable comparisons between O’Connell’s performance in Ink and Al Pacino’s work in The Godfather Part II, which is both awfully generous and a touch excessive on his part. “I used to say it’s the same as [Pacino at the end of Part II,] when he has ordered the murder of his brother, and yet you’re still intrigued by Pacino just sitting there all alone.” While championing his selection for the next James Bond, Boyle also took the opportunity to compliment the latest director to tackle the franchise, Denis Villeneuve. “Villeneuve is amazing,” he said. “Did you see that beginning of [Dune: Part Three], which they showed before The Odyssey? God, if I was directing The Odyssey, I would have thought everybody would be disappointed in my film following it.” And thus, the door to Boyle directing a Bond movie one day hangs a bit more ajar than it did yesterday.