'Skyfall' director Sam Mendes compares 007 to Shakespeare

"Skyfall" director Sam Mendes has compared James Bond to characters featured in William Shakespeare plays.

Speaking about producing new adaptations of both canons on 'Front Row' on BBC Radio 4 recently, Mendes said: "there are actually quite strong similarities. You have a kind of familiarity with it."

As well as directing "Skyfall", Mendes also recently produced a series of BBC productions of William Shakespeare plays to be screened on BBC TV during the Olympics.

Mendes explained that it was "not an unusual feeling... to deal with characters [like Bond] that already exist" when working on Shakespeare productions. "Where [Skyfall] differs is it's a totally new story," he added. "We're not remaking Live and Let Die or The Spy Who Loved Me.

"You don't have that certainty that you have with Shakespeare, that there is a structure there that will hold you, a story that fundamentally works that has been tried and tested over many years."

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