Post by Carl Stromberg on Nov 19, 2012 5:01:46 GMT -5
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2234989/Daniel-Craig-best-paid-James-Bond-scoops-31m-make-2-films.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Licence to make a killing: Craig is the best-paid Bond yet as he scoops £31m to make two more films
James Bond will return, we are usually assured as the credits roll at the end of a 007 film.
And with Daniel Craig being paid over £31million to play the spy in two more outings, it's little wonder.
The deal makes Craig, 44, the best-paid Bond to date, even taking into account the effects of inflation on his predecessors' paypackets.
Craig, who features in the latest film Skyfall, will star as the world’s most famous secret agent in a film that could be ready for release by 2014.
The latest Bond movie’s huge box office success and critical acclaim has led to his large increase in pay.
It is a far leap from his first Bond role which saw him earn £1.9million in Casino Royale in 2006, and also the £4.4million he received for Quantum of Solace in 2008.
I'll be back: Daniel Craig will star in two further installments of the Bond franchise
Craig, 44, received £10.7 million for Skyfall, which is more than the £7.5million paid to his predecessor Pierce Brosnan for The World Is Not Enough in 1999 and the £10.3million for Die Another Day in 2002.
The financial deal will see him placed near the top of Hollywood’s leading men - vying for position just below Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Craig, who is married to English actress Rachel Weisz, is widely judged the best 007 since Sean Connery and purists believe his portrayal of the literary character is the closest since Timothy Dalton in the 1980s.
Despite the criticism of Quantum of Solace, Skyfall has already made more than £378million at the box office - slightly more than his previous two films.
Skyfall, which also stars Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes is yet to release in many Asian countries and Australia, meaning it is expected to break the £500million mark before its cinema run ends.
The payments to Bond stars have risen massively over the past half-century. When Connery was plucked from relative obscurity in 1962, he earned £10,000 for the first Bond film, Dr No, according to the MI6-HQ website, widely recognised in the Bond world for its accuracy.
Connery’s pay rose to £157,000 for From Russia With Love. When he returned to star in Diamonds are Forever in 1971, he earned a basic £620,000. Film-makers were so keen to sign him up that he also took 12.5 per cent of the profits made from the film in America.
Connery starred in six official Bond films, earning an average of £218,000 - about £3million in today’s prices. Roger Moore’s average pay per film in today’s prices was £6.3million, Timothy Dalton got £5.4million and Brosnan £8.7million. Craig will earn more than all his predecessors, with an average of £9.6million.
Craig’s demand is a far cry from the criticism received when producers picked him in preference to other names linked with the Bond role, including Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen. His blond hair, instead of the dark black depicted in Fleming’s books, led him to be nicknamed ‘James Bland’ before Casino Royale had started filming.
He is now firmly in the Hollywood A-list of leading men. Cruise was the top earner with payments of £47million in the year to May 2012. This included performances in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Oblivion, for which he was paid even though it has not yet been released.
DiCaprio’s earnings of £23million over the year include money for J Edgar, the 3D version of Titanic and Inception.
The best paid British actors during the same period were Sacha Baron Cohen, who earned £19million, including for his writing and producing, and Robert Pattinson, whose pay totalled $26m
Little is known about the plot for the next two Bond films but the screenplay will come from John Logan, one of the three writers of Skyfall. It is thought to be a two-part film with the second to be released in 2016.
Craig yesterday paid a surprise visit to 800 British soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan as they prepared to watch Skyfall.
Royal Air Force Sergeant Dave Hammond said of the morale-boosting visit: 'It was great to be able to see the film here and to have James Bond himself to introduce it was brilliant.'
