Daniel Craig. :bond:
Months of speculation as to the future of the James Bond franchise comes to an end with today’s announcement of Layer Cake star Daniel Craig as the newest actor licenced to kill.
It’s an interesting choice. Craig has a cold, cruel look about him that would serve him well as Bond. He wasn’t in my personal top picks, though–those would have been Clive Owen and Colin Salmon–but based on what I’ve seen of Craig I think he’ll do a fine job.
Bring on Casino Royale!
Published by Allyn
A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.
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Colin Salmon would be a great choice, but I don’t see them going so radical as to have a black Bond.
Plus, he already has a role in the Bondverse…where’s your sense of continuity, man!:-)
Continuity, my ass.
One of the ideas for Die Another Day that didn’t make the final film was that James Bond is a code name for different agents over the years. (Never mind the references through the Dalton films that the character was the same stretching back to Doctor No—DAD‘s director Lee Tomahori wasn’t aware of those.) They considered a scene where Brosnan’s Bond, disavowed by MI-6 and surrepitously back in the UK, seeks out a former Bond, to be played by none other than Sean Connery. Connery wasn’t interested, and the idea was dropped.
But if that idea had survived intact into Die Another Day it would have set the precedent for someone like Salmon to take the role of James Bond–his character Charlie Robinson would be the next 007, and he would become James Bond.
I agree, though, that it might be a radical notion to have a black James Bond. Ian Fleming wouldn’t approve. Yet I can’t help but feel that Salmon has the qualities that James Bond requires. He can be sauve and menacing all at once.
I’m very curious about Casino Royale, not least to see how a different actor interprets the role. As I mentioned on Psi Phi, Casino Royale is far from Fleming’s best work, so I wonder at the embellishments Fleming’s story will need to translate well to film. It’s possible, even likely, that the end result will bear as much relation to the novel as the films Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me had with the novels whose titles they share–in other words, none at all.