A New James Bond

I first saw Daniel Craig giving an extraordinary lead performance in a BCC Mystery special called The Ice House almost a decade ago, where he played a cop and an alcoholic. He made his first strong big-screen impression as an assassin priest in Elisabeth, and an even stronger impression as the dangerous son of Paul Newman in The Road to Perdition.

Now, he’s won the dubious honor of playing James Bond.

Well, for the first time, I’m actually interested in an upcoming James Bond flick. Craig is an interesting actor, and he’s likely to make for a different kind of Bond… one that’s possibly colder, harder, the kind of guy who looks like he spends his living deceiving and killing people. You’d think that a man who takes sex and violence so lightly would have a dark side, would be a bit damaged and deranged from the experience of routine amorality and ego.

We’ll see if Martin Campbell has what it takes to direct Craig, or if he’ll seize the opportunity to make something substantial out of a routinely frivolous and empty-hearted series.