Anders Bergstrom's blog on Words, Films, and Music

Friday, October 14, 2005


It's official! Daniel Craig is the new James Bond!I'm very excited about this news. Craig is a wonderful actor, who I was mostly recently a fan of in Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake. Other's might recognize him from his small roles in films like Elizabeth, Road to Perdition or Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The fact is that he'll be perfect for returning the character to something a little more cold, a little more deadly, and a little more like original Sean Connery role.



The next Bond film will be Casino Royale, which was Flemming's first Bond novel. This will be the third time that it's been adapted: once for television in the 50s, and for the spoof film in the late 60s with Peter Sellers and Woody Allen. Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro) will be directing. Goldeneye is easily my favourite non-Connery Bond film, so he's hoping he makes Craig's debut a good one!

4 comments:

Meghann said...

Says the girl who posts pictures of random people in weird outfits on her blogspace! Okay, maybe that's not geeky, but "ze bai" is!

Sean said...

Actually, none of the bond books have ever been "adapted." Only the titles of the novels were sold for reuse, never the plots. Thus, none of the movies are anything like the corresponding novels.

I've never actually read a bond novel, but I do enjoy all of the movies.

Anders said...

Actually Sean, the first few Bond films with Sean Connery did retain some of the major plot points from the novels, though changes were made - for instance in the novel of Goldfinger, Pussy Galore's character is a lesbian before she is "turned" by Bond. According to IMDb, You Only Live Twice was the first Bond film to bear little to no resemblance to the novel. After that, all pretense of following Flemming's novels was abandoned and only the titles were retained or - as with the last few films - are completely "original."

Anders said...

You are right though that the 60s Casino Royale spoof isn't really an adaptation. However, I've never seen the 50s TV film and am not sure how closely it follows the book.