He will also produce, joining Matthew Vaughn, his X-Men: First Class colleague.
Already travelling first-class is your old colleague Michael Heseltine, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lord City Growth himself, Andrew Adonis.
He has banned expense claims for first-class fares and told colleagues that they should always try to take public transport instead of taxis.
For good measure, conferences are first-class places to meet colleagues, gossip, drink and eat too much – and avoid irritating requests for copy from news editors – so most science hacks are happy to head off to major gatherings of researchers as frequently as possible.
Above all, he's a first-class saxophone improviser, a Philadelphia colleague of John Coltrane going back to the mid-1940's whose own notions of phrasing and harmony have been deeply influenced by his friend's.
"Jacintha was a much-loved colleague and a first-class nursing sister.
"There are not many places in the world that make high-quality superconductor materials, and our colleagues in China deliver first-class samples," he says.
His colleagues say he has a first-class mind, with an ego and energy to match it.
Brian Bell, my friend and former Observer colleague, who has died of cancer aged 70, was a first-class journalist.
A designer colleague recently e-mailed me about her new gig designing a first-class luxury lounge for a Pacific Rim airline.
If some colleagues find him sententious on occasion, nearly everyone on Capitol Hill considers him a first-class intellect and a force to reckon with.
