Sam Mendes which began transmission in early 2013. In April 2016 he was named as the President of the Jury for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. On 5 January 2010, news broke that Mendes was employed to direct the 23rd Eon Productions installment of the "James Bond" franchise. The film, "Skyfall", was subsequently released on 26 October 2012, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. Mendes had been employed as a consultant on the film when it was in pre-production, and had remained attached to the project during the financial troubles of MGM. The film was a major
Lothar Mendes work at Gaumont-British Pictures, directing films with Sir Michael Balcon producing. Under that banner, he directed "Jew Süss" (1934) starring one of Germany's most famous emigre actors, Conrad Veidt. Mendes' "Jew Suss" is not to be confused with the later Nazi film of the same title (1940) which is a Reich-made, virulently anti-Semitic film that deliberately contorted the exiled German-Jewish writer, Lion Feuchtwanger's original novel of the same name, on which Mendes' film was based. Mendes' 1934 film version of Feuchtwanger's novel received strong notices at the time, and was considered an important and early film in exposing the origins