Here are a couple of news related to James Bond.

First, the next Bond flick is probably going to have its new director in the person of Sam Mendes. MGM and the director are currently working and negotiating this and are aiming for a possible June 2011 release date. Daniel Craig will star as James Bond, as he has yet to to fulfill his franchise contract and regular Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are apparently on board already.

What is interesting to note is that Sam Mendes has yet to direct an action flick. Bond would be his very first one . He is, of course the director of the acclaimed film, American Beauty and Revolutionary Road. He did direct Jarhead, but I personally wouldn’t consider that as a major action film.

Meanwhile, the man behind the fictional character of James Bond, Ian Flemming, is set to be immortalized in a movie about his life. Playing him would be James McAvoy, who has wowed the critics in his performance in Atonement. He is the wise choice for the film as producers believe him to be very versatile, an “excellent actor with a dry sense of humour befitting not just Fleming, but Bond.”

Ian Fleming was 56 years old when he died in 1964, leaving the Bond legacy, that has since gripped the literary and film world. He first published his Bond novel in 1953, with Casino Royale, which has been turned into a movie two times, the last of which was starred by Daniel Craig.