Director Sam Mendes calling it quits after Spectre

British director Sam Mendes says he probably won't work on any more James Bond films after the latest installment of the long-running film series, Spectre, which opens in London in October.

"I said no to the last one and then ended up doing it, and was pilloried by all my friends," Mendes has told the BBC. "But I do think this is probably it."

Actor Daniel Craig will be making his fourth appearance as the British spy in Spectre.

"It feels almost, even though we've just finished shooting it, like one big experience and it was a fantastic life-changing thing," Mendes said.

Mendes, 49, directed the stage production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory between work on the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.

"I'm happiest rehearsing a play or editing a movie, and when I've finished editing a movie I generally want to be back in a theatre environment again," the director said.

"It feels like home, it feels controllable after the chaos of a movie set. But it won't be long before I want to do another film, and I'm very fortunate to be able to go back and forth between the two."

Spectre was filmed in London, Mexico, Italy and Morocco, and more than 1,000 people worked on the movie, Mendes said.

"And you really do feel it," Mendes said. "This is a bigger movie than Skyfall. It's shot in more places - we were in Mexico City and Tangiers and northern Sahara and Rome and the Alps and London. It's been an enormous undertaking."

Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Ralph Fiennes and Andrew Scott co-star with Craig in Spectre.

In the the film, Agent 007 will battle the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, or Spectre, and arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Waltz plays Blofeld, whose character first appears in Ian Fleming's Thunderball and has been featured in several Bond films.

Craig also starred as 007 in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

- EFE