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Studio gambles with "Casino Royale" and new Bond
2006-11-12
James Bond's producers have taken a gamble worthy of the Casino Royale with the super-spy's latest film, and will find out this week if it will pay off. They have returned to the first Bond novel for a remake that opens on Thursday and Friday and, to the dismay of many fans, cast blond Briton Daniel Craig in the lead role. So far the odds favor Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, keepers of the Bond film legacy, who have won almost universal praise from critics for Craig's gritty performance in "Casino Royale" and created a strong buzz ahead of the release. Only after Thursday will they know if they have hit the box office jackpot. "We have taken risks and we have changed," Broccoli told Reuters in New York recently. "If you don't change you die." When 38-year-old Craig was named as the new Bond last year, the messages of dismay drowned out those of support. He was deemed too ugly, stocky, too raw or unsophisticated to take on the mantle of the world's most famous spy. "I think I'm going to cry," was one U.S. blogger's reaction to the announcement in October, 2005, summing up concerns about Craig replacing the generally popular Pierce Brosnan. In Britain, where people care more about Bond than just about any other movie character, Craig was a major news story. "No one has much emotional investment in, say, Spiderman, because he's a mutant freak, but James Bond is sufficiently realistic that we think he is a kind if super-Briton," said Bond author Simon Winder. "That what's so curious is, given how chronic some of the films have been, that people still care." He feels "Casino Royale" predecessor "Die Another Day" was a turning point. Actor Brosnan's age at the time (going on 50) and the reliance on gadgets like an invisible car suggested Bond should finally retire from Her Majesty's Secret Service. Paul Dunphy, an editor at www.commanderbond.net, agreed. "The last three Pierce Brosnan films got so into self parody, especially 'Die Another Day'." BOND MEANS BIG BUCKS No matter what the critics say, "Die Another Day" earned an impressive $430 million at the box office, more than any other Bond film in nominal terms, although well short of some of the earlier movies in real terms. And over its 44-year history, agent 007 has become one of the most successful film franchises ever. Since the first Bond movie, 1962's "Dr. No," the series has sold $3.6 billion in tickets in the U.S. and Canada alone, adjusted for inflation. Worldwide the last four Bond films, starring Brosnan, grossed nearly $1.5 billion unadjusted, according to boxofficemojo.com. Little wonder Craig was seen as such a risk to follow in the footsteps of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Brosnan. "It's huge," Craig told Reuters in August. "Of course there's concern, I'm only human. I want to get it right." Reviewers across the board say director Martin Campbell has delivered on his promise to produce a darker Bond film, focusing more on character than gadgets. The storyline has also been adapted to reflect current times, as James Bond's first mission leads him to Le Chiffre, now banker to the world's terrorists rather than the Soviet agent of the original 1953 Ian Fleming novel.
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