Who is Denis Villeneuve? Everything to know about the Canadian filmmaker as he is set to direct the next James Bond movie

Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film, as announced by Amazon MGM Studios on June 25, 2025. Although the actor playing James Bond in the next film has not been announced, Tanya Lapointe will serve as the film's executive producer, with Amy Pascal and David Heyman as producers.

Denis Villeneuve is a Canadian Filmmaker, and he has directed films including Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Dune, and Dune: Part Two, among others. He has received numerous nominations for awards, including the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Globe Awards.

In a June 25, 2025, press release, director Denis Villeneuve thanked Amazon MGM Studios for the chance to direct the next Bond film. He shared that he grew up watching Bond movies with his father, starting with the 1962 classic Dr. No starring Sean Connery. Calling it a "huge honor," Villeneuve said he plans to "honor the tradition."

"Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I'm a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he's sacred territory. I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor," the director said in a statement.

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Denis Villeneuve on working in Hollywood and directing Dune

Denis Villeneuve attends the 2025 Writers Guild Awards - (Image via Getty)

In an interview with IndieWire, Denis Villeneuve shared that after his French drama film Polytechnique premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, he began receiving attention from Hollywood agents.

The Dune director stated that he was "afraid" to enter Hollywood, as he worried he would lose his "identity as a filmmaker." Villeneuve did not mention any names; however, he shared that he had heard stories of directors who supposedly lost themselves.

"In the back of my mind, I was frankly afraid to go to work in Hollywood. I was fascinated, I was excited, but at the same time I was afraid to be crushed. I was afraid to lose my identity as a filmmaker. I had heard so many stories and I was not considering myself better than the others, and saying, 'If it happened to this guy or that guy, why would it not happen to me?'" Villeneuve said.

Denis Villeneuve also shared that as a teenager in Bécancour, Quebec, he used to read Frank Herbert's Dune novels and create storyboards. He told the media outlet that he approached Dune only after honing his craft.

"I would have never dared to approach [Dune] without having learned my craft. I needed to get some muscles as a filmmaker in order to be able to bring that home, and through the years, in different ways, I learned different things that helped me to attack this adaptation," Denis Villeneuve stated.

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According to L'Officiel Ibiza's report dated February 22, 2025, Denis Villeneuve is set to begin shooting for Dune: Messiah in June 2025. He will also direct a film based on Cleopatra, as well as a film adaptation of author Kim Bo-young's science fiction short story, I'm Waiting for You.

Edited by Divya Singh