Trivia / Sam Mendes

• Production Posse: Several examples:
  • His first two films were shot by veteran cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, but since Hall's death his main cinematographer has been Roger Deakins, who’s credited Hall as his main inspiration, which shows in his lighting.
  • All of his films (with the exception of Away We Go and Empire Of Light) have been scored by Thomas Newman.
  • Production designer Dennis Gassner has worked on five of Mendes's 8 films so far.
  • All of his films from Road to Perdition to Revolutionary Road had costumes designed by Albert Wolsky.
  • Editor Lee Smith has worked with Mendes from Spectre to Empire of Light.
  • Aside from the two Bond films, Mendes has also worked with Daniel Craig on Road to Perdition, Andrew Scott on Spectre and 1917, Chris Cooper on American Beauty and Jarhead, John Krasinski on both Jarhead and Away We Go, and Colin Firth on 1917 and Empire of Light.
• What Could Have Been:
  • He was in talks to direct the live-action remake of Pinocchio, but later backed out.
  • He initially planned to direct The Voyeur’s Motel as his follow-up to Spectre but after various controversies surrounding the stories' validitity, he cancelled it.
  • He was initially attached to direct a new adaptation of James and the Giant Peach for Disney, with Nick Hornby writing the screenplay but the film was cancelled.
  • He considered directing a film adaptation of Preacher.
  • He was close to directing The Prestige before the author Christopher Priest chose Christopher Nolan to direct.
  • Before Christopher Nolan made Oppenheimer, Mendes was set to direct a film version of his own from the same novel American Promethus as his follow-up to Jarhead but his iteration died during development and moved on to Revolutionary Road.