Everyone can agree: He's certainly not the next Sean Connery. He's not the next Pierce Brosnan or the next Roger Moore.
We'll hope he's not the next George Lazenby and pray he's not the next Timothy Dalton.
Nevertheless, Daniel Craig is the next James Bond.
Huh. Good luck with that.
It goes without saying it is incredibly presumptuous and awfully unfair of me to dismiss his potential before a single scene has been shot.
I had my own favourites to take over the tux -- Jude Law, Clive Owen or Jason Statham -- and you probably had your own.
Almost a year ago to the day, British papers had declared Scottish actor Dougray Scott was being issued a licence to kill.
One of those papers claimed to have a leaked memo from inside the Bond production company that stated frontrunners Colin Farrell was "too sleazy," Hugh Jackman was "too fey" and Ewan McGregor was "too short" to be 007. Yet it failed to convincingly explain why Daniel Craig was "too perfect for the part."
Years of searching for a lead led them to an actor whose two claims to fame are playing a cocaine dealer in the British thriller Layer Cake and dating Kate Moss -- until she realized he only plays cocaine dealers in the movies and didn't actually have any to give her.
It's a bit like having the first pick overall in your fantasy hockey pool and proudly announcing you'll take Craig Conroy. Which isn't to say there's any team that wouldn't love to have Conroy in their uniform. Decent player, decent guy ... but he's just not the one you want, given the choice of anybody, to build a championship team around.
Daniel Craig isn't the guy, either. He's not what I'd call a "franchise player."
What's not in question here is whether Craig is a good enough actor to pull off the role of James Bond.
All he needs to do is to keep straight face while delivering cheesy dialogue -- and even Moore could barely manage that himself-- and not ruin a take by wincing when the special effects guys blow up an airplane hanger behind him.
So it's not really as though the role of Bond requires much in the way of "acting ability" per se. It's all about having charisma, through and through.
Producers can claim all they want Bond is headed in a new direction. Unless they completely reinvent the character, though, Craig simply doesn't look or act like a James Bond.
I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see if today's audiences mind a new James Almost-Bond.
