FIND MOVIES
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Bond traders

Why Pierce got booted
By GARY SUSMAN  |  November 15, 2006

061117_bond_main
MYSTERY WOMAN: Eva Green’s cagy performance is full of misdirection.
NEW YORK — The latest casualty of the war on terror: Pierce Brosnan. His four James Bond films were the most lucrative in the franchise’s 44-year history, yet the Broccoli family, which produces the 007 movies, decided to give the franchise a new star. “It’s because of where we are in the world,” explains producer Barbara Broccoli at Casino Royale’s Manhattan press junket. “We just got to the point where the last film had taken the fantasy aspect to the limit. Given the world situation, we felt we needed to do something more realistic and more serious, and this was the obvious thing for us to do. And we couldn’t have an actor who had played the role before playing the first mission. Brosnan was a wonderful Bond, but it wasn’t about him, it was about making a decision to change the direction of the series.”

New 007 Daniel Craig had been best known for art-house films like Sylvia and Enduring Love, but he says the Casino script (rewritten by Oscar winner Paul Haggis) persuaded him to go mainstream. “I read it and I thought, ‘If you don’t do this, you’re going to regret not having a go at it. He’s one of the most iconic figures in movie history, and I’m an actor. If I don’t take on challenges like this, what’s the point? I so didn’t expect this to happen. I had other plans. But this came along, and Barbara Broccoli is very persuasive.” He adds that he received encouragement from an unlikely source: Pierce Brosnan. “He just said, ‘Go for it. You’ll have the ride of your life.’ ”

The challenge proved emotionally grueling, as Craig took a beating from British tabloids who felt the blond actor was miscast. “It affected me. But what can I do? I can’t answer it. I can’t get on the Internet sites and start . . . ” — here he made typing gestures and sniveling noises. “It was like, ‘See the fucking movie, and then you can say what you like about it.’ ”

Martin Campbell, who also shot Brosnan’s first 007 film, GoldenEye, contrasts the two Bonds. “Pierce is very much a traditional Bond. He was carrying the torch from the Connery days. You knew what you were getting, which made the whole franchise very successful. With Daniel, what you get is a much darker, more sober Bond. We see his weaknesses, his vulnerability. Much more reality. Daniel manages to get all those nuances from the book that Fleming intended.”

Craig is signed to do two additional Bond movies, in which he’ll learn more about the shadowy terrorist network he tangles with in Casino. Even Eva Green, who plays Bond love interest Vesper Lynd, found the plot confusing. “Barbara Broccoli helped me understand,” she says of the sequel, which will involve an old beau of Vesper’s who is mentioned in passing in Casino. “The plan is, the Algerian boyfriend is going to be the baddie in the second Bond, and we’ll understand [better].”

1  |  2  |   next >
Related: Five-card stud, Heroes of our time, Wish-fulfillment for a burning world, More more >
  Topics: Features , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Internet,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY GARY SUSMAN
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: SALT  |  February 24, 2011
    "Who is Salt?" ask the promos for this movie. Doesn't really matter — all you need to know is that she's the latest Angelina Jolie heroine.
  •   FANBOYS  |  February 19, 2009
    Bonus points to director Kyle Newman for upping Kristen Bell's already solid geek cred (and for squeezing her into Princess Leia's gold bikini).
  •   ‘HELL’ YEAH!  |  November 11, 2008
    The richness of Guillermo del Toro's vision as a filmmaker is even more visible in Hellboy II: The Golden Army than it was in 2004’s Hellboy , the last movie he made before Pan's Labyrinth .
  •   DARJEELING UNLIMITED  |  October 03, 2007
    Movie miniaturist Wes Anderson ( The Royal Tenenbaums , Rushmore ) expands his horizons in The Darjeeling Limited.
  •   BECOMING JANE  |  August 01, 2007
    Anne Hathaway is game enough as Jane, though she has to spend an awful lot of time on the verge of tears.

 See all articles by: GARY SUSMAN