That's what they found to play the latest James Bond:

An insider is quoted in Britain's Daily Star newspaper as saying: "They've started shooting here and are using the old DB5, which is absolutely sensational. It was shipped over and was ready to go but then we found out he can't drive a manual car.

"So we have had to adapt it so it's like an automatic. You don't expect that with James Bond, to be honest."

Last year, Craig admitted he is struggling to overcome his biggest fear to play Bond - he's terrified of guns.

Who'll be the next one? Boy George?

He hates guns and doesn't know how to drive a high performance automobile? Does he have any interest in women, smoking, gambling, or vodka martinis?

There is only one true Bond, and his name is Sean Connery.

CECIL RULES!!!

Errol Flynn is Robin Hood
Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes
Johnny Weismuller is Tarzan

Sean Connery IS JAMES BOND

and

If they didn't ask him if he could drive a manual shift, how good did his acting have to be to get the part? I bet he smells good too. Just what the world needs, a metro-sexual Bond. Ian Fleming must be spinning like an auger, headed to China.

Daniel Craig is an _actor_; he doesn't drive cars, he acts like he does. He doesn't shoot guns, he acts like he does. He doesn't make love to women... at least not on the set, I hope. But I suspect he can act like he's doing it too.
Now, if you wanted someone who did his own high performance car driving, you'd get the guy who was in The Transporter (1 & 2); If you wanted someone who could outfight Chuck Norris, you'd get...the guy who was in The Transporter (1&2); if you wanted some hunky guy who could both act and looked great with his shirt off you'd get that guy who was in The Transporter (in 1 he removed his shirt three times, in 2 only once.)
Oh, did I say he could act too? I think the name's Stetham.

John,
I agree he should be able to act, but its about "acting" like our mental image of Bond.

I am not a huge Ben Afleck fan nor a huge Aleck Baldwin fan, I am a huge Harrison Ford fan.

Baldwin was to me the best Jack Ryan. He was smart and quick on his feet, but he had some natural fears we all have. He as Ryan fought them down, to do his duty as he saw it. He's the everyman that sees he has to do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do, end of story. We could be Baldwin's Ryan because we believe in his cause, we'd go like he did scared but resolute. He didn't even want to fly, but he did. We hope to God, however, we neve have to do it.

Harrison Ford was good but we have preconcieved notions about him, he's Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Rogueish, solitary, sometimes sulllen, willful not the Jack Ryan of the books. He is an adventure hero, the guy we wish we were.

Afleck is a Boston high-school drop out, whose best friend is a math genius. We loved him as he told Matt Damon he hated him every morning when he came out of the house to go to his janitors job. But he IS NOT Jack Ryan. There is no visceral connection to him as he tries to save the world as Ryan, we just don't care. If Afleck is Ryan, I'd rather the terrorists win, because none of us wants to be him.

That is my thought process when I see or decide to see a movie. I don't want to see Barney running around Jurasic Park. He is a dinosaur, but he isn't my kind of T. Rex. I want to bite the lawyer in half, WE ALL DO.

Finally having set all this up, and concerning Bond. He's fast, he's quick thinking, he is an expert with guns, knives, explosives, he can fight hand to hand like a demon, he isn't above pitching a fan into the tub along with the bad guy, and he can drive anything with wheels. He prefers martinis shaken not stirred, he likes women nicely rounded. (man has that look gone the way of the T Rex) He prefers sports cars, NOT automatic drive mininvans. He's not going to soccer practice he's saving the freakin' world on that silver screen! ,
He wants a vehicle he can control. Bond is a control freak, he couldn't have a double "O" in his name if he wasn't. He can do all these things looking cool, getting the well rounded babes being arrogant to his superiors, because he, and they, know only he can do all these things. We all wish we had the cojones to be James Bond.

The best actors can pull off doing something they don't really know how to do. Errol Flyn learned enough sword fighting to make us belive he killed Casil Rathbone. But I am not sure how you can pull off "faking" shifting and clutching if you don't know how to do it. You can't "act" the entire body movement of shifting from second to third. He's terrified of guns!! Give him a blank pistol and send him out to he country side to fire off 200 rounds he'll get used to the gun.

I'm not sure who this new Bond is, but if he can't learn to drive a striaght drive in a couple of days, something every one of us once had to learn to drive, he can't be Bond. If he can't overcome his terror of guns, he can't be Bond. He can't be that good an actor, most of have never heard of him. If he is the new Bond "type" the movie makers were looking for, I'd rather be Ben Afleck.

CECIL STILL RULES!!

Jack Bauer would kick James Bond's ass.

Jack Bauer would kick James Bond's ass.

This James Bond, undoubtedly.

I say give the guy a chance. He was solid as hell in Layer Cake, and it's not like the Bond series hasn't survived its missteps *cough*Moonraker*cough*. I also find the news that they've cast Eva Green to be a Bond girl. She has a certain smoulderiness to her presence. In short, I'm keeping the faith until something more significant dissuades me. It's not what he's like in real life that matters--it's what he can put on the screen. Which is to say that I agree with John.

No more Roger Moore's as James Bond. Moore had the same problem, he was a "girly" man and hated guns. I've recently seen some of his Bonds on AMC and they're not Bonds, they're satires of the Sean Connery films and Moore was a farcical Bond.

The last series of Bonds had a good Bond, but putting him in a PC unverse and making him knuckle under to it was the worst yet.

This series badly needs to be completely rethought
or put out of it's misery. I've always said they should go back to the original books and make Bonds as period pieces.

Steve,

Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes

Oh, no. No, no, no.

Rathbone was good, and perhaps the best for a while, but Jeremy Brett is and always shall be Sherlock Holmes incarnate, the one man who could make you believe that Holmes never was merely a fictional character.

(Sorry if this is OT.)

Obi-Wan speaks truth.

I guess I have to agree, but I was talking movies. Rathbone had 90 minutes on a dozen occasions to be Holmes. He sold it to me when I was 8 or 9, and that takes some serious "undoing". He was Holmes to me for 30 odd years before I saw Jeremy Brett in a deer stalker hat.

Brett gets hours and hours of time to sell us his Holmes. He can be Holmes line for line and with that amount of time he can "wear" Holmes, but he is good I'll give you that.

"So we have had to adapt it so it's like an automatic. You don't expect that with James Bond, to be honest."

Last year, Craig admitted he is struggling to overcome his biggest fear to play Bond - he's terrified of guns.

Okay, this guy sounds like the biggest moonbat wussy they could have possibly found. Are they going to extend this to the movie too? Maybe instead of James Bond sleeping with women, he will instead entice them to talk about their feelings and have a nice cry session with them... Then they can go for facials.

I guess I have to agree, but I was talking movies.

Brett had at least three full-length "movie" episodes, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Brett gets hours and hours of time to sell us his Holmes.

Gosh, he sold me in the first 15 minutes. You're right, though--he wore Holmes as if he'd done that character his whole life. His characterization was easily the truest to Doyle's quirky written description, and didn't sugar-coat Holmes' negative qualities at all.

I only "bought" Basil Rathbone as Holmes until I actually read one of the stories. Jeremy Brett's portrayals came much closer to the Holmes I read about.

It's possible one day there'll be another actor whose Holmes comes even closer than Brett's, but unless that life-extension stuff comes along pretty soon I may not see it.

The sad thing about Brett is that he passed before the possibilities could be fully explored.

This is one of those debates that rage amonst us that keep them making movies and TV shows, If we were ever satisfied by a character we would quit watching, much as we quit eating when full.

The beauty of these really classic characters is that we thankfully never get full. We are hungry to see our friends soon, glad they dropped by and we are always ready to sip the last of our shaken martini, for the game is afoot!

It's elementary, my dear friends!

Maybe they're looking at a trendy change of direction for the series... like...oh I don't know..."Brokeback Bond?"