Sam Mendes says he hasn't yet agreed to Bond 24

The Sam Mendes merry-go-round continues to spin, with the Skyfall director insisting that talk confirming him as director for Bond 24 remains premature at this stage.

Having initially appeared to rule himself out, only to be firmly ruled back in some months later, Mendes is still unwilling to fully confirm that he will be returning to the Bond franchise.

"In answer to the question you’re going to ask, I don’t know yet," said Mendes in an interview with HeyUGuys . "I’m in discussion over the ‘B’ word and I won’t make any decision until Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is open. It’s taken a long time to get this open and this has been my focus."

Now while that might seem to throw the issue into doubt, we can't really underestimate the amount of work that goes into staging such a large-scale production, and it's understandable that Mendes wants to give the show his full, undivided focus.

While Bond fans won't rest easy until Mendes signs on that dotted line, and is officially confirmed to the media, we should get a more definitive answer from the Oscar-winner once Charlie And The Chocolate Factory has had time to bed in...