HoustonChronicle.com - Hollywood wonders: Will a blond Bond sell?

Hollywood wonders: Will a blond Bond sell?
Daniel Craig fits the role of a grittier, younger secret agent
By LOUIS B. PARKS, Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 14, 2005, 10:37PM

The choice of English actor Daniel Craig as the new James Bond represents more than a casting change for the incredibly successful 43-year-old film series.

Producers for the series have indicated they want to take Bond in a new direction, away from the special effects, juvenile humor and outrageous action sequences long associated with the series that has made more than $4 billion worldwide.

At Friday's London introduction of Craig as the sixth 007, GoldenEye director Martin Campbell, who will be at the helm of the next Bond film, Casino Royale, said it would present "a tougher and grittier" Bond "with more characters and (fewer) gadgets."

Following on the successful rejuvenation of the Batman series with this summer's Batman Begins, Campbell said this story would show Bond earning his license to kill.

That demands not just a new actor but a younger one.

Craig is 37, a good bit older than the 28- to 30-year-old Campbell originally wanted, but much younger than 54-year-old outgoing Bond Pierce Brosnan.

Aside from the blond hair, Craig is, like the Bond created by author Ian Fleming, ruggedly handsome, but not pretty.

Fleming said Bond resembled Hoagy Carmichael, a popular pianist of Fleming's day, and Craig has a similar thin, rather beaten face. He looks ready to fight, less ready to slip into a tuxedo.

Ironically, Irishman Brosnan had long pushed for a grittier, more human Bond, and even campaigned to get Quentin Tarantino to direct. Bond films, however, have always been "producer movies."

Back to his roots
By making the switch to Craig, Eon Productions and half-siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are taking a great artistic, if not financial, risk.

Brosnan made the successful but stagnant series big box office. Though it was highly criticized for its comic book tone, Brosnan's last Bond move, Die Another Day, grossed $425 million worldwide at the box office.

With Casino Royale, based on Fleming's first James Bond book (1953), Eon hopes to take the character back to his roots as a secret agent who feels love, fear and self-doubt, and away from the cartoon superhero and sex machine.

Through months of public speculation on who would be the next 007, Craig's name consistently popped up.

In the end, even for James Bond, getting the job depends on who you know.

"I know ... Broccoli, I've known her for years," Craig told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year while shooting a movie in Texas.

Casino Royale, No. 21 in the Bond film series, begins shooting in January, for a fall 2006 release.

Locations include the Czech Republic, the Bahamas, Italy and at Pinewood Studios near London, with a budget well over $100 million. Before Casino Royale opens, audiences will see Craig in a lead role in Steven Spielberg's Munich, opening in December.

Craig has been romantically linked in the past to model Kate Moss and German actress Heike Makatsch and recently was rumored to be involved with his Layer Cake co-star Sienna Miller. He is divorced and has a daughter with a former girlfriend.

At Friday's news conference in London he declined to discuss his personal life.

In Texas earlier this year to shoot Have You Heard, a film about Truman Capote, Craig told the Chronicle he wasn't sure he wanted to be Bond.

"That's the truth of it," he said. "If it was to get to the point where it was offered, I would give it serious consideration."

Now for a new Bond Girl
At the news conference to introduce Craig, director Campbell, who had reportedly pushed for a younger actor, said the script would have minor adjustments to accommodate the 37-year-old star.

Now that the Bond role has been cast, the search is on for an actress to play Vesper Lynd, the woman who wins Bond's love and damages his psyche.

If the choice of Craig has shaken the fans of 007, perhaps they'll be stirred by the choice of the next Bond Girl.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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