Anti-Craig group to boycott next Bond film
Four months after news that British actor Daniel Craig would be the latest James Bond, a group of 007 fans have banded together to protest his selection.
The group launched the website craignotbond.com this week in order to protest against what they call "a terrible choice" to play the British secret agent in the iconic film franchise.
The group has several concerns, including "Bond producer Barbara Broccoli's questionable decision to fire popular Bond star Pierce Brosnan and replace him with an unknown with a penchant for oddball roles," the group says on the website.
The fans have vowed to boycott the upcoming 21st Bond film, Casino Royale, which began production in January and is set to hit theatres in November.
However, a former Bond and a former Bond villain have come to Craig's defence.
Roger Moore, who played 007 from 1973's Live and Let Die through 1985's A View to a Kill, said Wednesday that critics should give Craig a chance because they haven't even seen him in action yet.
Moore, who had stopped in Toronto en route to a Bond film event in Quebec City, praised Craig as "a hell of a good actor."
Also, while speaking at the Bangkok International Film Festival this week, actor Christopher Lee defended Craig, calling the negative reports about him "a lot of nonsense."
"People should not pass judgment until they have seen the film," said Lee, who made his name playing horror roles in the 1950s and 1960s but whose recent credits include the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars: Episode Two - Attack of the Clones and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"People should not pass judgment until they have seen the film" —Former Bond villain Christopher Lee
Lee, who played the assassin Francisco Scaramanga in the 1974 Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, is a distant cousin to Bond creator author Ian Fleming, who died in 1964.
Bond producers named the fair-haired Craig — whose most recent credits include Munich, The Jacket and Layer Cake — to the role last October. Other contenders purportedly included more prominent actors such as Jude Law, Clive Owen, Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor.
Aside from the popular Brosnan, whose performance in four Bond films was credited with reviving the franchise, Craig follows in the footsteps of the dashing Timothy Dalton, Moore, George Lazenby and Sean Connery.
Last week, producers announced that Casino Royale would feature French actress Eva Green as the newest "Bond girl" and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as the film's main villain.