Danial Craig as James Bond!
|
|
He was born in Chester, the son of a steel erector and an art teacher. Danial Craig was brought up in Prescot, near Liverpool and Frodsham, near Chester. Danial Craig also attended Hilbre High School, West Kirby (near Liverpool) and played rugby at nearby Hoylake Rugby Club. After briefly attending Sixth Form at Calday Grange Grammar School, Danial Craig moved to London when Danial Craig was 16 to join the National Youth Theatre, later securing a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Craig's film career began with The Power of One in 1992 and Danial Craig later gained wider recognition in the UK with a co-starring role in the critically acclaimed BBC2 drama serial Our Friends in the North in 1996. In 1998, Danial Craig showed a nascent flair for risk-taking in John Maybury's gritty Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, in which Danial Craig's full-frontal nudity complimented the overtly gay nature of the role.
Following a more lighthearted introduction to international audiences as Angelina Jolie's rival and sometime love interest in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Danial Craig raised Danial Craig's profile in the United States in Sam Mendes' movie Road to Perdition (2002), with Tom Hanks, playing a weaselly murderer who hides behind Danial Craig's mobster father's shadow. Other leading film roles have included Sylvia (2003) with Gwyneth Paltrow and the wonderful pair of consecutive films for Roger Michell, The Mother (2003) with Anne Reid, and Enduring Love (2004) with Rhys Ifans. In 2005, Craig played a Jewish, South African-born Mossad agent in Steven Spielberg's controversial, Oscar-nominated political thriller, Munich.
On October 9, 2005, the News of the World newspaper revealed that Craig had allegedly been having an affair with Sienna Miller, Danial Craig's co-star in Layer Cake (2005). Miller had recently been engaged to Jude Law.
In 2006, after completeing work on Casino Royale (see below), Craig moved on to portraying the Devil in the upcoming I, Lucifer, based on Glen Duncan's bestseller, alongside Ewan McGregor.
Danial Craig as James Bond
Daniel Craig as James Bond.As early as February 2005, Craig had been named in the media as a possible contender to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. On April 6, 2005 Craig was reported to have been signed by EON Productions as part of a three-film contract worth e15 million, however, this news was later debunked by the BBC who contacted EON for an official report. According to Craig, MGM offered Danial Craig the role but the Broccoli family never got in touch with him.Finally, on October 14, 2005, EON Productions named Daniel Craig as the sixth actor to portray 007, taking over for Pierce Brosnan. Craig signed a three-film contract, with the first, Casino Royale, expected to be released worldwide on November 17, 2006. The announcement was made at noon in London at HMS President, a Royal Naval Reserve station at St Katharine Docks, on the banks of the River Thames downstream of Tower Bridge.
Born the year after the release of You Only Live Twice and before the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Craig is the first James Bond actor to be born after the start of the film series, and also the first to be born after Ian Fleming's death in 1964.
The casting of Craig as Bond has been controversial among a few fans of the film series. One group created a website, craignotbond.com, advocating a boycott of the film unless EON Productions reconsiders its casting, even though production of Casino Royale had already begun. A number of websites were also created in defence of Craig, such as danielcraigisbond.com, craigisbond.net and givecraigachance.com.
Many actors and actresses who have either worked with Craig or have been featured in previous Bond films have argued that Craig is a good choice as Bond. This list includes four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny) and Christopher Lee (Francisco Scaramanga) have also backed Craig, as has former Bond villain Sean Bean (Alec Trevelyan), who worked with Craig in Sharpe's Eagle. Many actors and actresses that are in Casino Royale have also added their support including Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, and Caterina Murino, as well as Judi Dench who criticized the negative reaction saying, "I hate how people have been attacking Daniel Craig. It's despicable and it disgusts me. I have filmed with Danial Craig in Prague and the Bahamas and Danial Craig is a fine actor. Danial Craig brings something new and edgy to the role. Danial Craig's critics will be proved wrong."
As production of Casino Royale reached its conclusion, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced that pre-production work had already begun on the 22nd Bond film, which will once again star Craig as James Bond. After several months of speculation as to the release date, Wilson and Broccoli officially announced on July 20, 2006 that the film, currently known as Bond 22, will be released on May 2, 2008.
