Daniel Craig Would Rather Slash His Wrists Than Play James Bond Again


Daniel Craig has been heralded as one of the best James Bonds of all time, yet unfortunately the 47-year-old actor seems to be done with the whole franchise.

The Sun reports that Daniel Craig is putting his James Bond days behind him and has instead signed up to star in a new U.S. television series. The series, known as Purity, will feature 20 episodes per season and is rumored to have already been signed for several seasons.

IGN reports that Variety published a synopsis of Daniel Craig’s new television venture.

Purity tells the story of an aimless young woman named Purity but known as Pip. She was raised in unusual circumstances in Northern California and winds up bouncing around after college from Oakland to Bolivia to Denver in a series of jobs and relationships with equally offbeat characters.”

Based on a novel by Jonathan Franzen, Purity will feature Daniel Craig starring as Andreas Wolf, a German man who offers to help an American woman, Purity, to locate her missing father. IGN adds that Daniel Craig’s character took part in a crime in the past, a fact which he has been keeping secret all this time.

Although many people have commented that the introductory details for Daniel Craig’s new television venture are uninspiring at best, there must be more to the story. The Sun reports that network heavyweights FX, Amazon, Netflix, and Showtime are all vying for rights to Daniel Craig’s new venture, with a “bidding war” reportedly underway. The producer for the new show will be Scott Rudin, who notably has already worked with Daniel Craig on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo back in 2011.

Daniel Craig didn’t mince his words when he announced that he was pulling away from the 007 franchise, claiming that he would “rather slash his wrists” than star in another James Bond film.

The latest James Bond film starring Daniel Craig was 2015’s Spectre, which, according to Forbes, made $175 million in the U.S. box office and $650 million worldwide. While some commentators called Spectre a “disaster” compared to some of the previous James Bond hits, Forbes had a different take on it.

“I don’t think a mere $175m domestic/$650m worldwide ‘disaster’ of Spectre is going to hurt the franchise one bit.”

The Bond franchise has already suffered recently, with director Sam Mendes earlier announcing that he, too, would not be coming back to work on another Bond film.

The Sun reports that Daniel Craig was asked who his choice would be to play to next James Bond, and he had a rather interesting take on it.

“Look, I don’t give a f***. Good luck to them.”

Despite Daniel Craig’s ambivalence, various names have been mentioned as front runners for the new James Bond, including Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, and Damian Lewis.

Quite where this animosity is coming is unknown at this stage, considering that Daniel Craig has played the controversial role in four films spanning over a decade, from Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace, and then Skyfall, followed by last year’s Spectre.

Daniel Craig has also recently come out in support of the Great Ormond Street Hospital (“GOSH”) and happily donated a rare and valuable item to their latest appeal.

“Whenever I’ve visited [the hospital] I’ve met so many real-life heroes — both the people who work there and, especially, the remarkable young people treated there.”

Evening Standard reports that Daniel Craig has donated one of his personal tuxedos, a Tom Ford original, which includes the shirt, cummerbund, and bow tie, that he wore at the 2015 Governor’s Awards. The tuxedo is a one-of-a-kind original that was made specifically for Daniel Craig, and includes a double vented back, a single button front, and peak lapels.

In order to add to the value of the items, every piece has been personally signed by Daniel Craig, and he also has included photos of himself wearing the tuxedo, along with his wife, Rachel Weisz.

[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

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