In the next issue of Martial Arts Illustrated’s ‘Impact’ pages, John Mosby will be looking at the contenders to play the next James Bond. But could a big offer to Daniel Craig entice him back?
Despite declaring, on the promotional tour for Spectre, to pretty much anyone who would listen, that he would rather eat broken glass than play Bond again, there’s a solid rumour around the internet that Sony are planning to give Craig a vault-load of cash to stick around for two more films.
The James Bond franchise is in a precarious spot, with the latest adventure, Spectre, not quite as well received as the previous one, Skyfall. Craig’s comments regarding how he feels about playing the action antihero have set tongues wagging about the possibility of his replacement, including entirely unsubstantiated, but very popular, rumours regarding Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston.
However, Radar Online have now reported that Sony is intending to ‘bribe’ Craig to hang on in there for two more films. Despite his age of 48 (which has lead some to say he is too old for ‘this kind of thing’), Sony apparently still see Craig as a ‘bridge’ to a young successor, but the report also claims that the current Bond is ‘pivotal’ to the success of the franchise.
The ‘source’ told Radar, “They will shoot two more films, which will be made virtually back-to-back, preferably featuring Daniel as 007 before he passes the figurative baton to someone else for a third movie that will mark the start of the new era.”
It is true that Daniel Craig has been a successful Bond, with two massive hits in Casino Royale and Skyfall, the latter in particular bringing in well over $1 billion, and smashing box office records. Craig brings a hard, street-style toughness to the role, and allowed Sony to reboot the sophisticated spy series with more grit.
However, $75 million in salary for a single film, which is what Sony is reportedly offering, is a massive amount of money that some might say NO actor is worth that… so if the report is true (and that’s a BIG ‘if’) then that presumes Sony is going back on the ‘no actor is bigger than the role’ which has been the stance of the production company’s remit for decades. Of course, it may also depends if Sony wants to hold on to the lucrative rights with other studios also interested.
So, for the moment, we’ll take the rumours with a pinch of salt, as this seems an untenable amount of cash given the huge list of possible replacements, for less than 75% of this monster price.
