Iffy Rumor Claims Daniel Craig To Make Two More ‘Bond’ Films Back-To-Back For $150M

Sep 5, 2016

Gossip site Radar Online is claiming that Daniel Craig has made a $150M deal to shoot Bond 25 and Bond 26 back-to-back, with an even greater claim that Sony will be returning to handle distribution. A rumor that has a lot of issues with it and we have no idea how valid it is to begin with.

RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Sony is offering James Bond star Daniel Craig a whopping $150 million to reprise his role as 007 for two more of the popular franchise’s films.

According to the source, Sony should be announcing any day that the studio is re-upping the distribution rights for the Bond series, meaning billions of dollars in revenue.

Screen shot 2016-09-05 at 11.30.12 AMCraig made it clear he’s not returning during the Spectre press tour, mentioning he’d rather slash his wrists than make another Bond movie.

“Now? I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That’s fine. I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.”

” At the moment, we’ve done it. I’m not in discussion with anybody about anything. If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money.”

Daniel also had choice words for shooting Bond films back-to-back, which almost happened with Spectre and Bond 25.

“Well, I was contracted to do another one. That was all set up. But at the studio there was a real keenness to get it done as soon as possible. In fact, there was a conversation at one point that went: “Let’s film two movies back to back.” I just went: “You’re out of your fucking minds.” In the nicest possible way. They’re just too big.”

Keeping Craig around might be more volatile for the Bond brand than producers want to admit, if he does more of these kind of interviews. He’s also alluding to the studio wanting to run out his contract as soon as they could by shooting his remaining films together.

“He has been [wonderful] and he’s loved it. But I think he feels like he’s mined it. He’s done what he wants with it.”

I’m not sure why he’d change his mind on this bizarre production schedule. It also seems to be off to what MGM officially said in March, about their Bond production cycle.

“Bond is the most valuable property that we have, and it’s been on a cycle of every three-to-four years, and I anticipate it will be on that same three-to-four year cycle.” 

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Reports over the last couple of months also point-out that multiple actors have been in the mix to replace Craig, who already turned down a whopping $100M for a similar deal. I’m not sure if an extra $50M would be enough for Craig to come back for two more films, also who exactly is paying that hefty contract?

If they had a deal made, why would MGM and Eon Pictures still be seeking out new actors?

A cheaper and more logical option is finding a new actor, as they could use that money on the pricey production instead. I don’t see any studio willing to pay Daniel Craig $150M ($75M a film), let alone Sony who struggled with MGM on the overspending on Spectre‘s production and made the shoot considerably difficult for everyone involved.

I’m not sure how anyone can sell the idea that Daniel Craig is just as valuable to the Bond franchise as Robert Downey Jr. is to the Marvel Studios franchise. Even if the idea is still the package deal to new studios. I don’t see the value in an actor obviously not interested in the role and when the franchise could use new blood to energize it.

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Birth.Movies.Death adds their own gossip on the Craig and Sony situation.

First, that Daniel Craig gave his notice to Eon in June 2015 and would mean he’s officially out.

Second, Sony was notoriously clamping-down on the spending on Spectre, which doesn’t make sense Eon would make a deal with them again, along with Sony potentially shelling-out $150M for Daniel Craig to make two films. Apparently, due to the deal with Sony, producer Barbara Broccoli made more than Eon did on the billion dollar success Skyfall.

It’s been widely reported that 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. (among other studios) have been actively bidding for the distribution rights, so it’s unlikely MGM and Eon will play ball with Sony after their horrid experience on Spectre.

I can’t really remember the last big news story that Radar has ever put out there, but I do know The Daily Mail and The Sun have a better track record when it comes to Bond news. A good as you can get as a UK tabloid that doubles as an entertainment outlet.

Something else that has me a bit worried about the authenticity of the Radar article, nobody put their name on it as it’s credited to “Radar Staff”. You’d think the writer or writers of one of the biggest Bond stories in recent memory would want credit for it. Using an anonymous author feels extremely fishy to us, considering how big the story is, if it were true.

SOURCE: RADAR ONLINE

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