LONDON, March 16 — After being hotly tipped as the director of the next James Bond movie, Danny Boyle has now confirmed that he will helm the 25th film in the long-running series, which is scheduled to start filming before the end of the year.

A long-time favourite for MGM and Eon Productions — which own the rights to the franchise — Danny Boyle has now confirmed that he will direct the next James Bond film. Speaking to Metro New York, the filmmaker said: "I am working on a Richard Curtis script at the moment. We hope to start shooting that in six or seven weeks. Then Bond would be right at the end of the year. But we are working on them both right now.”

This isn’t the first time that Danny Boyle has been on MGM and Eon Productions’ radar. The studios previously envisaged him to direct the last two 007 flicks, before signing up Sam Mendes.

The Trainspotting director also said that screenwriter John Hodge is working on an idea for Bond 25, without going into detail. The pair previously worked together on Shallow Grave in 1994, The Beach in 2000 and more recently, on T2 Trainspotting in 2017.

The date and location of shooting are still unknown but Bond 25 is due for release in November 2019.

Danny Boyle — who won the Best Director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire — will direct a cast including Daniel Craig, who returns as the British secret agent for this 25th adventure.

The last two Bond movies, directed by Sam Mendes, were the franchise’s two highest-grossing movies at the box office, with over US$1.1 billion (RM4.3 billion) for Skyfall and US$880.7 million for Spectre. — AFP-Relaxnews