Caveat Emptor: Tabloid says Craig returned to set 007 record

Eon boss Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig is returning to play James Bond in part to set the record as the longest-serving 007 in the Eon Productions series, the New York Daily News said.

Here’s an excerpt:

Daniel Craig was lured back to play James Bond one more time by the promise he’d “make history,” according to a source close to the 49-year-old actor’s return.

“MGM and (Craig) had not spoken for over a year,” according to an insider who tells us that executive producer Barbara Broccoli worked her magic.

“Daniel said he was done, he meant it,” we’re told. “She said he wasn’t, she meant it.”

Bond 25 currently has a November 2019 U.S. release date, although no distributor has been announced.

“We’re told that the next Bond film’s 2019 release date means that Craig will have owned the role for 13 years, which is one year longer then Roger Moore, the current record-holder, played 007,” the Daily News said.

One note. Barbara Broccoli, the boss of Eon Productions, has the title of producer, not executive producer, in Bond films. In movies, executive producer is a secondary title to producer. In television, executive producer is the highest-ranking producer title.

As for the rest? The truth isn’t knowable at this point. Hence the Caveat Emptor label here.

Moore did seven Bond films that were released from 1973 until 1985. The longest gap was two-and-a-half years (December 1974 to July 1977). With Bond 25, Craig will have done five from 2006 to 2019. There will have been two four-year gaps (2008 to 2012 and 2015 to 2019).

Sean Connery, the first film Bond, did a total of seven — six for Eon and the non-Eon movie Never Say Never Again.

UPDATE (2:35 p.m.): While it’s hard to evaluate the accuracy of the Daily News, here’s something to remember. In late 2011, Eon’s Michael G. Wilson said he wanted to see Craig do a total of eight 007 films and surpass Roger Moore’s total. (Wilson didn’t reference Connery’s seven.)

Your guide to 007 click bait, or “Madness! Madness!”

Daniel Craig in SPECTRE’s main titles

Here’s a quick summary of what we read (well, actually skimmed) so you don’t have to. After a while (say 15 minutes) it’s like the end of The Bridge On The River Kwai and thus, “Madness! Madness!”

The drive for a female James Bond: American actress Gillian Anderson, currently starring in a theatrical production of A Streetcar Named Desire, went to Twitter on May 21 to post some fan art of her playing a female 007.

“It’s Bond. Jane Bond,” she wrote. “Thanks for all the votes! (And sorry, don’t know who made poster but I love it!) #NextBond.”

Naturally, various websites wrote this up, including Time magazine, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post.

Around the same time, actress Priyanka Chopra have a magazine interview where she said she wants to play Bond.

This was chronicled in, among other places the Vulture entertainment news website (part of New York magazine), The Indian Express at least 160 others, according to a Google search.

Evidently, if you’re an actor with sufficient credits and a fan base willing to tweet up a storm, you, too, can have a story written about yourself as a potental James Bond.

In the drive for clicks, the tabloid New York Post decided to push back against the idea with an article titled “Why a Woman Can’t Play James Bond.”

Finally, a sane voice, you might conclude. However, this article isn’t comfort food for traditional 007 fans. Here’s how it ends:

So please, Hollywood, write more spy movies and TV shows for women. After all, the first two seasons of Jennifer Garner’s “Alias” were more exciting and creative than any James Bond movie since “Goldeneye.” Or have a woman play a gender-neutral character like the driving force of “Mission Impossible.” The less Tom Cruise, the better.

But don’t rely on a tired 54-year-old franchise to drive home your point. Your only aim should be making a spy movie that kicks James Bond’s ass.

Pretend you’re the casting director: The U.K. tabloid Daily Mail helped ramp up #NextBond fever last week with a story saying Daniel Craig had definitely quit the role despite lack of official confirmation.

The publication’s sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, decided to stir things up more by having a “Bond-off” about potential successors. It was primarily an exercise in showing off its staff’s expertise in Photoshop, by putting the heads of the usual suspects atop the bodies of Craig and previous 007 actors.

“Across the pond,” another tabloid, New York’s Daily News, did a variation on the same idea, albeit with no showing off of Photoshop skills.

NY Daily News offers U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks as contest prize

The Daily News, the New York tabloid newspaper, is offering 1960s Man From U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks as the prize for a contest.

For the full story, CLICK HERE. Or you can check out this excerpt:

Yes, dear reader, write the winning entry and you’ll receive eight vintage “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” novels, plus a bonus: a “Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” novel by the legendary Michael Avallone, a writer described by novelist Bill Pronzini as “of all the bad writers of the century, pre- eminently top of the heap – the Big Guy.”
(snip)
Which brings us back to “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” A child of the kiss-kiss-bang-bang years of James Bond, I adored all matters cloak-and-dagger, including the adventures of Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum—yes, Dr. “Ducky” Mallard on “NCIS”) that aired on NBC from September 1964 to January 1968. With the initial success of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” came the inevitable novelizations, packaged by Ace Books.

The article by Vince Gosgrove discusses novelizations of movies and television shows more broadly. Michael Avallone wrote the initial U.N.C.L.E. Ace novel and was followed by various authors, including David McDaniel, an U.N.C.L.E. fan favorite. The Ace books weren’t actually novelizations of televiswion episodes but original stories. Anyway, for the contest, entrants have 250 words to explain why they should get the books being offered. The Deadline is April 11 and entries should be e-mailed to manfromuncle@nydailynews.com