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For his debut as 007, Daniel Craig places his bets on Casino Royale. An adaptation of Ian Fleming's first novel about the playboy spy, it's already been filmed once - after a fashion - in 1967.
After 2002's Die Another Day , speculation became rife about where the Bond franchise was headed and, importantly, who would play the secret agent. In October 2005, Daniel Craig was announced as the sixth actor to take on the mantle for the official films, those produced by EON Productions, the company started in 1961 by the legendary partnership of Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
When Craig's name was announced, it was also revealed that EON - now headed up by Albert Broccoli's daughter Barbara and stepson Michael G Wilson - along with Sony and MGM, were turning to Fleming's first Bond novel, 'Casino Royale', a tale of espionage through gambling, for the twenty-first official franchise entry.
Returning to the first Bond adventure is a logical move, as it provides an opportunity to restart the franchise. Craig turned 38 in March 2006, and is essentially playing a younger Bond - he's 15 years younger than Brosnan. Of course this will require a double sleight of hand, as not only will Craig's Bond continue to function in the modern world Brosnan's Bond only recently left, but Fleming's book, which was published into a very different world in 1953 - a time of gentlemen spies and Cold War tension - will have be updated. "It has to be," says Craig. "It's a suspension of disbelief that we're renewing Bond, and that this is the first time you see him." |
