Tony Gilroy On Bond, Michael Clayton Prequel

Nearly twenty years on, Tony Gilroy’s Oscar-nominated 2007 film “Michael Clayton” remains in the zeitgeist, the title scoring a great big homage in this week’s episode of “Poker Face”.

Gilroy of course has, in more recent times, created and served as showrunner on the celebrated “Star Wars” series “Andor”. Recently discussing the show with The Playlist, he revealed that he’s been approached about doing a “Michael Clayton” TV series:

“Yeah, they tried that a couple of times, ‘Can we do a TV show’ [of ‘Clayton’]. Yeah, a ‘Micheal Clayton’ prequel TV show.”

He adds that his brother, writer/director Dan Gilroy, was similarly approached about doing the same thing with his acclaimed Jake Gyllenhaal-led feature “Nightcrawler”:

“They tried to do it to Danny too, they tried to do a ‘Nightcrawler’ show. But we both took the same position. It’s like, really? You want me to take the one perfect thing we’ve done and p— on it? They did everything that they could, but ultimately, I was like, ‘Do what you want to do, but if you do this, I’m going to be a problem for you,’ [laughs] They finally [let it go].”

Gilroy also says he and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh came up with a James Bond pitch back when Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were controlling producers on the project:

“We wanted to go back to the ’60s and do it in black and white and do Carnaby St. and do the whole thing. I thought it was a really swinging idea, like $30 million [budget], but he couldn’t get them to…they just wouldn’t give anybody control.”

He adds that he had a great idea in mind for a Bond villain but doesn’t want to give it away in case he uses that idea elsewhere.

Gilroy says his next project is “Behemoth!,” an Oscar Isaac-led film about a “cellist child prodigy, third-generation studio musician” who returns to L.A. after many years away:

“The whole movie is surfing on music. And you find out through the flashbacks why he left [LA]. ‘Behemoth!’ is the fake name of this huge movie at the end. It has to shoot in L.A. and feature live musicians. It’s very expensive, but a lot of people want to help because it’s shooting in L.A. which is a coral reef about to die.”

“Andor” is now on Disney+ while “Michael Clayton” is available digitally.