Skyfall director, Sam Mendes has reportedly been in talks to return to direct the next Bond movie ¨C despite previous reports indicating that he had ruled himself out of the job.

In March this year, Mendes said that he wasn¡¯t keen in retuning to do another Bond movie, saying that he had other interests.

¡°Directing Skyfall was one of the best experiences of my professional life,¡± Mendes said.

¡°But I have theater and other commitments, including productions of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and King Lear, that need my complete focus over the next year and beyond.¡±

Now producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson had reportedly been into contact with Mendes with plans for a sequel to being shooting in 2014. This comes after an agreement on both parties with Broccoli and Wilson happy for Mendes to finish his theatre works before coming back to work.

The news comes from a long-list of director who had been approached to direct the next movie, including The Dark Knight¡®s Christopher Nolan, Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive), Shane Black (Iron Man 3) and Ang Lee (Life Of Pi).

It seems the list of directors all have ¡®artist¡¯ value attached to their name ¨C citing perhaps the new direction that the Bond film series is heading following a very different type of Bond movie portrayed in Skyfall.

Last year¡¯s Skyfall has now become the most successful Bond film ever at the box office, grossing over $1.1 billion worldwide, but was also met with critical acclaim, with many citing it as the best Bond ever ¨C because of its detachment from previous labored films.

The latest reports indicate that production for the sequel is well on its way with Penelope Cruz reportedly signing for the next Bond film.

A source reportedly told Yahoo: ¡°The producers have tried to get Pen¨¦lope before, but she has never been available because of other commitments. The discussions have been going on for some time and they are working out the contract details now.¡±

Daniel Craig will continue as 007 with John Logan, who wrote Skyfall, beginning to work on the next two Bond films, with the next one in the series to be released in 2016.