As reported by: Houston Chronicle
The real gambling in Casino Royale is not what James Bond does at the poker table.

EON Productions, which has made 21 Bond films since Dr. No premiered in 1962, is doing what Warner Bros. did very successfully with Batman Begins and Superman Returns: taking an old series with an iconic hero and starting over.

Smooth Pierce Brosnan is out, rough Daniel Craig is in.

Craig's James Bond does not make bad puns about death or sex. He doesn't get cool gadgets from Q or flirt with Miss Moneypenny. (In Casino Royale, both characters are MIA.) Other familiar elements - the martini recipe, the "Bond, James Bond" intro, the gun-barrel opening and the theme song - are gone or reconfigured.

And Bond, for the first time, is blond.

"I watched every Bond film four times," Craig told the New York Times, "but then I let it all go flying right out of my head. Why make this movie unless you really want to do something different with the role? That would be the biggest waste of time in the world. I think it's time to take Bond into the next century."

Will this approach recharge the series, or is it a huge mistake?


Article By: Houston Chronicle