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Daniel Craig will star in at least
five James Bond films, taking his tenure through
the 25th entry in the series...
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5 Bonds For Craig
6th September 2012
Daniel Craig will play James Bond in at least five films in
the EON Productions series, MI6 can confirm. He has already completed
shooting on his third outing, "Skyfall", which will open nationwide
in the UK on October 26th. His remaining contracted fourth and
fifth films will be the 24th and 25th movies in the official
series
respectively.
Sony Pictures, who through a new
co-financing deal with MGM, are also set to continue their relationship that
started with
"Casino Royale" in to Bond 24. Studio executives have been
alluding to a return to the two-year cycle to produce the 007
adventures, which would peg Bond 24 as a late 2014 release.
This schedule may be too aggressive for the
artistic process at EON Productions, who have savoured the longer
than usual break
between films to craft the script for "Skyfall" and
have other non-007 related projects in the works, too. Craig
himself is
keen to have a breather before kicking off another Bond outing,
telling press recently that he is not taking any other film work
on until after all the "Skyfall" promotional work is
over in the New Year. Behind the scenes, EON recently started
inking screenwriting
contracts for Craig's next two Bond movies. Producer Michael
G. Wilson also said
publicly that
he hopes Craig will go on to be the longest serving actor in
the role.
A total of five outings would make him the third
longest serving James Bond actor in terms of films produced,
but Craig has already
clocked up six years in the role over three movies, longer than
the time it took Sean Connery to make five. Although Craig's
contract has two more films yet to run, Bond actors have been
released
early from their commitments.
Both Connery and Timothy Dalton left the role a film early
for completely different reasons.
A Brief History Of Bondage
Sean Connery originally signed up to play 007 in six films starting with "Dr
No' (1962), but was released from his contract one film early following "You
Only Live Twice" (1967). George Lazenby was then cast as the first replacement,
completing "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)
before walking away from a contract for more. Connery was lured back to the role
for "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971)
and a record fee of £1.25 million which he donated to charity. Roger Moore
then took the helm with "Live And Let Die" (1973),
the third successive film in the series that had a change in the lead role. Moore
steadied the ship and went on to complete a record total of seven outings, culminating
in "A View To A Kill" (1985). His
contract was originally for four films, but Moore and Broccoli negotiated on
a per-film basis thereafter. Timothy Dalton, who had been previously considered
for the role, was cast for three films, starting with "The
Living Daylights" (1987). After "Licence
To Kill" (1989), a six year hiatus
followed due to studio legal disputes, leaving Dalton walked away from a
possible third film. Pierce Brosnan - who had narrowly
missed out on the role in 1987 due to an NBC contract renewal - debuted as
007 in "GoldenEye" (1995). His tenure
was set for three films with an option for a fourth, which he completed with "Die
Another Day" in 2002. Brosnan was not recalled, and after a four year
break, Daniel Craig made his debut in "Casino
Royale" (2006).
