Sam Mendes once doubted casting Daniel Craig as 007?

We were about to take a sabbatical of a few days after reading a lot (probably too much) of the Skyfall publicity blitz. But on a Brazilian Web site, Bol Noticias, which you can view in its original form BY CLICKING HERE, it says Skyfall director Sam Mendes originally felt Daniel Craig wouldn’t be right to play James Bond.

Skyfall director Sam Mendes

Here are samples of the text after running it through Google Translate (caveat emptor):

The hiring of Daniel Craig to take the suit of James Bond has never been a consensus among the fans. Among them, the director of new film “007 – Skyfall”, the third of Craig as the British spy.

“I was one of those people who did not think it right for the role,” confessed Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”), which revealed the actor in the United States with his “Road to Perdition (2002).” Maybe I had not chosen Daniel to be Bond, but he proved me wrong. Watching him go through the process and assume the character was amazing. ”

Mendes and Craig did a collective online direct from Pinewood Studios in England to the press. Earlier, the teaser trailer was shown for the first time. Revealed by the scenes, “007 – Skyfall” James Bond will have a thirst for revenge for a series of attacks on British soil, culminating in the murder of several colleagues.

Now, this is the first of the many stories (reported over the past couple of weeks and released April 16 when an embargo set by Eon Productions lifted) that mentioned details of the teaser trailer:

The trailer begins with the agent himself being interrogated under the eyes of the official M (Judi Dench) and Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). When asked about the mission “Skyfall,” he answered only: “It’s done.” Then scenes of explosions in London, falling buildings in Shanghai and a funeral.

“The film has some darker moments, but there are a variety of colors, the beautiful bondgirls and some references of mythology that we are bringing the series back to,” said Mendes. “007 is not a real world. So he’s not Bond and Bourne.”

By now our head hurts, but a few observations:

No Bourne influences? It was a different story when studio executives requesting anonymity told The New York Times in 2005 that “the model was Jason Bourne.”

At the end of the story, Daniel Craig, Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson say Bond will still drink martinis while also consuming Heineken beer. Running the story through Google Translate makes it difficult to say who said exactly what, but all three commented to some extent:

“He also will drink vodka martini in the movie, he said producer Barbara Broccoli. “We care first to write the best possible movie. Then just incorporate what we think appropriate,” the producer Michael G. Wilson.

The first quote appears to be Craig based on the context of the story (via Google Translate). Broccoli appears to chime in the “best possible movie line” with Wilson getting in the last word.

UPDATE: A Yahoo! Movies blog post, which you can read BY CLICKING HERE says there was a press event in Mexico, where reporters got these quotes via a hookup to the U.K. where the principals (Craig et. al.) spoke.