With four movies out this year, momentum seems to be building for Bond.
Elisabeth Rappe, Jan 12, 2011
Movie stardom is a precarious thing, particularly in these quick-and-dirty days. You are only given so many chances to be A Really Big Name. A headliner. An actor or actress who can open a movie purely by being them, and thus gets their pick of the juiciest scripts. These, we are told, are the people who can get movies made. Hope often rests on them to pick edgy scripts, and fund them on their star power alone.
What's always startling about the definition of stardom is that the public's perception of a star isn't the same as the industry's. We think of Hugh Jackman of being a big star. Hollywood considers him a wild card, and unable to open a movie on his own name. (Exhibit A: Fox assuring audiences he was manly enough for Australia.) Gerard Butler may burn up gossip blogs, but he's not 100% bankable. Neither is Clive Owen, Josh Brolin, Viggo Mortensen, or a dozen other actors we gush over, but are considered impotent when it comes to luring in crowds. But perhaps the biggest shocker of that "big but not a leading man" list is Daniel Craig.
Yes, that's right. James Bond is considered a bit of a loser by studio executives. Why? Because he's Bond. Despite his physique and popsicle-blue eyes, Craig has had little luck with audiences outside of 007 installments. The Invasion, The Golden Compass, and Defiance all fizzled and though that had little to do with Craig, he's viewed with a bit of studio skepticism. When he was cast in Jim Sheridan's Dream House, there was a fair amount of critical clucking about how desperately he needed to make his name in something new. When it seemed as though Bond 23 would never happen due to MGM woes, Craig's slide down the cast list seemed a distinct possibility.
But that's so last year. 2011 is going to be the year of Daniel Craig. Again, it seems bewildering to those of us who are fans of movies and the people in them, but Casino Royale was just a starting point. Craig has to prove what else he can do. With four major movies being released into theaters this year, this is his biggest and best opportunity.
First up is Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens. Daniel Craig was a last minute replacement for Robert Downey Jr., and I can honestly say that from where I was sitting and reporting, no one cared. Craig may have his own creepy popsicle, but no one sparked to the idea of his riding the range and shooting extraterrestrials. (Why not? Don't men love Westerns? Don't ladies love cowboys?) That changed once the trailer hit, and he looked so mean and mysterious. The whole mystique -- the dust, the hat, the chaps, the squint -- fit him like good pair of boots. That's not a surprise. The Western genre is rather to flinty and rugged blondes. I suspect it will do more to sell him beyond Bond than a dozen romances, dramas, or comedies might, particularly in a post-True Gritworld. Unless, of course, it winds up a disastrous Jonah Hex with aliens, in which case it will set the genre back so far that even the Coens might complain.
But Craig's got all genres covered this year. If chaps and spurs don't sell him, perhaps a supernatural thriller will. Dream House, which hits theaters on September 30, will either build on Cowboys & Aliens buzz, or gently scrub it away. The plot is intriguing -- Craig and Rachel Weisz play a couple who find their ideal home, only to find out it's haunted by its former inhabitants -- and the cast is good. (Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas, and Elias Koteas costar.) Jim Sheridan may be its weakest point. It could be on par with his best thrillers, or it could be Get Rich or Die Tryin'. If it flops, Craig takes the hit. It's not fair, but that's the way it works.
However, you don't get the enviable role of James Bond without a few clear skills, and Craig played his cards right with sheer scheduling. Whatever his buzz is by December, he won't be resting on his laurels or hiding from the world. Oh no. He's headlining The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for David Fincher. Despite the talent amassed, many fans are skeptical of this remake, and dubious that it can do better than the Swedish original. But there are undoubtedly just as many fans who feel Fincher can wring new angles out of the story, and many moviegoers have yet to meet Lisbeth Salander or Mikael Blomkvist on page or subtitled screen. Craig has the opportunity to make the character his own, and to carve out a new (if limited) franchise with the Millennium Trilogy. But Tattoo could fizzle simply because of an abrupt Salander burnout (it happens with so many properties) or a sense that Fincher is just echoing an established property. We saw this last fall with Let Me In, which had some fine scenes in its own right, but wound up striking a lot of people as pointless. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo could end up with a very similar fate.
Craig also is faced with embodying another European favorite: Red Rackham in Steven Spielberg's ambitious adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. He'll be buried under layers of motion capture though, so it's entirely possible many will see the film and never realize Craig is Rackham. If the movie is a roaring success, it will be the cherry on top of an incredibly full and awesome year. If it's a flop, well, the motion capture can forgive a lot of sins. But it won't help Craig any. He's going to be seen as a bad penny.
2011 could find Craig conquering four separate genres in a single year: Western, horror, thriller, and animation That's the kind of slate any actor or actress would envy, and wins fans from every demographic. That's the kind of year that makes you a superstar. But if they're all dead on arrival, then it just looks like bad timing and overblown ego. Just ask Jude Law how it can sting to have bombarded one cinematic year, and then be mocked for the scheduling that's out of your control. One goes from being a golden boy to being a sidekick in Sherlock Holmes.
But that won't happen to Craig. Not completely, anyway. He will either be bigger than big in 2012, anticipating the release of Bond 23 (which is going into production to earn him even more 2011 press), or he'll have to be content being known only as the world's sexiest super agent. That's not a bad way to build a screen legacy (I don't hear anyone calling Sean Connery a failure). He won't be hurting for money. The residuals are enough to retire on unless he tries to buy Argentina and a pack of racehorses. And if you're a man and could choose one indelible image to go out on, it ought to be looking fit in a pair of tight swim trunks. Really. No one is going to be shedding a tear for Daniel Craig.
Nevertheless, good luck to you, Mr. Craig. May 2011 be your year. From where I sit, it certainly looks as though it will be. You've got a good mix, they're well spaced through the year, and you're a talented fellow. Odds are in your favor. Who knows? You may even get a new popsicle flavor out of it!
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