Sam Mendes critical and commercial success, becoming the 14th film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Following the success of "Skyfall", Mendes was asked if he was returning to direct the next Bond film. He responded, "I felt I put everything I possibly could into this film and it was the Bond film I wanted to make. And if I felt I could do the same again, then absolutely I would consider doing another one. But it is a big task and I wouldn't do it unless I knew I could." It was reported that one reason Mendes was reluctant to commit
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