My name is Craig, Daniel Criag

Well, it's official, British actor Daniel Craig becomes James Bond #6 -he's beginning to rival that famous Time Lord from Doctor Who.

Anyway, after months of speculation the team at Eon Productions, led by Barbara Broccoli and producer Michael G. Wilson, announced that Craig will take over for the pink slipped Pierce Bronsan in the 43 year-old franchise. The 37 year-old actor is not know here in the States much, though he was seen in the low-budget action film Layer Cake this past spring, and had roles in the first Tomb Raider film and Road to Perdition.

James Bond 21 will be a serious version of Casino Royale (there was a 1968 parody version done, and until about a year ago, was the one title that Eon did not own). Neil Purvis and Robert Wade will script the movie (and are already reported to be working on Bond 22, giving the imperession that they could be returning to the 2 years between films and this, despite that Wilson had brought in Oscar nominated writer/director Paul Haggis in to pump up the dialogue), and its reported to deal with Bond getting involved in a no holds barred game of Texas hold'em that somehow threatens the world.

Oh, please.

But one would be remiss not to mention why Bronsan was not asked back to play Bond for a fifth time, and it had nothing to do with money. Both Broccoli and Wilson claim that they feared a stagantion with franchise, as market research was showing that the Bond films teneded to have the oldest demographic of any action-adventure series. And in a world where young males were Bonds bread and butter and thus were moving away from the franchise, they needed to find away to get them back. Sure the video games were doing well, but apparently that was not translating so much into box office dollars.

As early as April of this year, Brocolli was already settled on Craig, when the sale of MGM/UA slowed everything down. Once Sony Pictures accquired the studio casting needed to go through Amy Pascal, who heads Sony's motion picture division. So demographics, one word actors and actresses hate, played a key role in dumping Bronsan beyond everything else.

Martin Campbell -who directed Bronsan in his debut as Bond back in 1995 - will return to helm Casino Royale. But, as Harry Knoweles says over at www.aintitcoolnews.com, "Campbell plays to all the worst aspects of the Bond franchise. He's safe, risk-free and ultimately boring. The early word on his return to ZORRO is that it is two yawns and a snooze away from Naptime entertainment. Now, imagining someone like Matthew Vaughn (who directed Layer Cake) teaming back up with Daniel Craig and being set loose to adapt this material the way it should be handled... dangerous, deadly and cold. Man, that's the BOND I'm dying to see. Alas - we're stuck with one of the most boring "action" directors working today."

So its same old/same old, as neither Broccoli or Sony appear NOT to want to actually take a risk with Bond. But then, that's what's wrong with Hollywood in general. They want movie stars in their films, and not actors. They don't want to shake the tree, as they fear too many monkeys will fall out.

Move along, folks.