The End Of The Bond Rumors...Thank God

Hey guys, it's Donnie...Well, Sony has made it official. That which seems to have been the consensus opinion of anyone who knows what the hell they're talking about on the internet. People have been claiming this as gospel for the past week, but since I have half a brain cell, I've purposefully been avoiding the rumor talk until we got an official announcement.

Well, Sony and Eon held their press conference in London this morning and Daniel Craig arrived via military boat in a suit and shades. That's right, the brooding star of Mathew Vaughn's Layer Cake is approved and official as the next James Bond. What with this and the recent revelation of the Spidey 3 villains, the only major internet movie gossip remaining revolves around plot details for the mysterious Superman Returns, who might be playing The Joker in the next Batman flick, and just how craptastic X3 is going to turn out.

My opinion? I'm thrilled. Sony is looking for Casino Royale to drastically re-invent James Bond as Warners did with Batman, and for pretty much the same reason: both franchises had become so obtuse and self-indulgent that they were actually boring. Making Batman and James Bond boring is a pretty nifty trick, but they each managed to do it. We'll be getting a younger, grittier, more human Bond this time around, one who's livelihood isn't dependent on stale one-liners and ridiculous contraptions. If you're gonna change Bond, you might as well go all out and I think that Craig is a great choice. Folks who are unfamiliar with his work should check him out in Layer Cake (which is, I think, a good indication as to what kind of a Bond he'll make) and as Paul Newman's son in Road to Perdition. He also just wrapped filming on Munich, Spielberg's flick about Isreali assassins that is supposed to hit theaters by Christmas.

You can also check out Sony's official site right here to check out the official press release as well as a nice little promo image of Craig with goddamn hand cannon, and the title artwork for Casino Royale. Moriarty over at AICN said something about Baccarat (Bond's card game of choice and a crucial plot point of the original Casino Royale) being replaced by Texas Hold 'Em, which is all kinds of stupid, but I don't think it'll really happen. At least I seriously hope that it won't...