Frears ‘full of admiration’ for former Bond director Boyle

Director Stephen Frears has supported Danny Boyle’s decision to step away from directing the next James Bond film.

Earlier in the week, Boyle quit as director of the next Bond film “due to creative differences”.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, on the panel for A Very English Scandal, which Frears directed, he said he was “full of admiration” for Boyle.

Asked by the panel’s host, former Great British Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins, if he would be up for directing Bond, Frears said: “I wanted to have a debate with Danny Boyle when he was asked to the film about Steve Jobs.

“I saw it, I knew nothing about Steve Jobs and I came out knowing even less.

“I said to him, ‘Why did you not say to the producers ‘Are you out of your f****** mind?’. I’m full of admiration for Danny – he worked it out, he could see the bullet speeding towards him.”

He then later joked “I’m available” when pushed as to whether he would be up for directing Bond.

The director also admitted that he had only watched Sean Connery playing Bond.

A Very English Scandal documents the relationship between the late Liberal Party MP Jeremy Thorpe (played by Hugh Grant) and Norman Scott (played by Ben Whishaw) in the 1960s, which later led to a highly publicised trial in which Thorpe was acquitted of conspiring to murder his ex-lover.

No replacement for Boyle has been announced.