Sam Mendes Knows that If You’re Going to Rip Off a Batman Movie, You Use ‘Dark Knight’ and Not ‘Batman & Robin’

Long before he took the reigns of directing Skyfall, Sam Mendes inspired a generation of emo kids to film plastic bags drifting in the wind with his influential film of suburban depravity American Beauty. And as Mendes now points out, he is just as good as taking inspiration as he is in giving it. It doesn't take a genius to work out that The Dark Knight has been pretty influential across cinema over the last half a decade. So it's no surprise to hear the former Mr. Kate Winslet to discuss how Christopher Nolan's epic helped to shape his first Bond film.

"What Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with The Dark Knight, it's not even set in our world," chimed Mendes. " That did help give me the confidence to take this movie in directions that, without The Dark Knight, might not have been possible."

Skyfall is out in the UK at the moment and will be with us early in November. You can check out these movies which were definitely inspired by The Dark Knight now though!