HOW JAWS DIRECTOR HELPED DANIEL CRAIG DECIDE TO TAKE ON JAMES BOND 007 ROLE
The release of No Time To Die sees the final instalment in the series of Bond films starring Daniel Craig. With five films under his belt, he is the longest serving screen Bond. However, he may not have even taken the role if he hadn’t taken advice from the Jaws director, Steven Spielberg.
That’s what happened according to the (not so) secret agent actor, which he revealed when he was talking to film journalist (and The Daily Jaws follower) Alex Zane on 007: The Daniel Craig Years, helping promote his 007 swan song.
Craig had been offered the role, but didn’t accept it immediately. At the time of the offer he was filming Munich with Steven Spielberg, who gave him some sound words of advice. Telling him that if the script is right and the deal is right, do the job. In the interview Craig admits that Spielberg was “very supportive.”
After filming Munch, Craig went on holiday and ended up staying in the same place as Steven Spielberg, with Craig having the Casino Royale script for some light holiday reading. Although he was meant to keep its contents a secret, he asked Spielberg if he would be interested in reading it. He of course said yes and read it in the space of an afternoon. Handed the freshly read script back to the next 007, he simply said, “do that film.”
And do that film he did, which was released in 2006, it is almost hard to believe that Daniel Craig has been James Bond for 15 years.
After the release of Casino Royale, Craig followed it up with Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre, before his Bond finale, No Time To Die. Although he has been the longest serving Bond, Roger Moore still has the record of official appearances, with seven, spanning from Live and Let Die (1973) to A View To A Kill (1985).
He’s closely followed by Sean Connery with six official appearances spanning from Dr No (1962) to Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Never Say Never Again (1983) was an unofficial remake of Thunderball (1965).
Eric Bana and Daniel Craig (left) in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Munich’
Pierce Brosnan is next, with four outings between GoldenEye (1995) and Die Another Day (2002), with Timothy Dalton having just two appearances, The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence To Kill (1989) and George Lazenby packing the Walther PPK for one mission in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
Of course, Spielberg has had several other links with the James Bond series, or indeed various actors from the Bond films.
Before he played Quint in Jaws, Robert Shaw was on full villain duties in the second James Bond film to hit the big screen, From Russia With Love (1963), where he played Red Grant who had a still taut and exciting fisticuffs with James Bond (Sean Connery). Here’s our look back at how Shaw almost steals the movie:
Jaws star Robert Shaw appears in James Bond adventure ‘From Russia With Love’
After Spielberg had wrapped filming on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and George Lucas had returned from shooting Star Wars (1977) in a galaxy far, far away the pair retreated to Hawaii and talked about what they wanted to do next. Spielberg said that he’d always wanted to make a James Bond film (he was turned down by then Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli as being too expensive), but Lucas had a better idea. They would create their own action hero, Indiana Jones (who really is named after Lucas’s dog).
The result was Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones would return in (the prequel) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and bring his dad along for the ride in the (then) final adventure, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). So, who to get to play Indy’s dad? Who else than the spiritual father of the cinematic Dr Jones, the original James Bond, Sean Connery.
Words by Dean Newman
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