Director Roger Michell cites script as reason for pulling out of Bond 22

Even before Casino Royale had been released, news was breaking about the forthcoming production of the 22nd James Bond movie - due out on November 7th 2008.

One of the biggest stories was Roger Michell ("Notting Hill", "Venus") who was rumoured to be directing Daniel Craig's second outing as 007, and later confirmed in October 2006 that he had pulled out of the film for "creative differences" with producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Talking to HIT this week, Michell confirmed that he was offered to helm Bond 22 – but despite the fact that he would have liked to have worked with his old friend, Daniel Craig – he ultimately passed on it, because he didn’t like the script.

"We couldn’t find a way of making us all happy with the script. It’s been through various drafts, but I just decided to say no before I got too far into it", Michell says. "As far as I know, it’s absolutely up for grabs at the moment".

Back in January, Michell said that he "got into a bit of a panic at the prospect. At that time, the film was due to start shooting in January, and I just felt this terrible pressure of scrambling to get a script together with the clock ticking. To go into a film like James Bond when you don't really know what's happening would be a recipe for hell."

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