Motifs in the James Bond film series that is central to the spy film genre. The gun barrel imagery sometimes carried over to the film posters used to promote Bond films, including as a familiarising element on the introduction of Timothy Dalton for "The Living Daylights". The sequence was traditionally placed at the start of each film until the 2006 instalment "Casino Royale", where it appears after the cold open and is incorporated into the plot; in the 2008 film, "Quantum of Solace", the sequence was placed at the end of the film and incorporates the film's title in its design. For Skyfall, director Sam Mendes had
Sam Mendes "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party", and "Othello" with Simon Russell Beale as Iago. In 1990 Mendes was appointed artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, a studio space in London's Covent Garden which he helped transform into one of the city's more notable theatre venues. He spent his first two years overseeing the redesign of the theatre, and his opening production was Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" in 1992. Several successful productions followed. In 1993 Mendes staged an acclaimed revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's "Cabaret" starring Jane Horrocks as Sally Bowles, Alan Cumming as