It seems a very long time ago, considering the barely-contained anticipation around new Bond movie "Quantum of Solace," that eyebrows were raised over Daniel Craig's initial casting as the super-cool spy.
Die-hard Bond fans, bloggers and critics worldwide couldn't map the rugged 40-year-old's bullish physicality onto suave James Bond, who's as famous for his sharp suits, womanizing and suggestive one-liners as for his espionage activities.
But no one was more astonished than Craig himself. "I never expected to be playing the part. That was the biggest surprise to me," he told CNN in London, where the new film premieres in Leicester Square Wednesday.
Craig, a self-confessed Bond fan, quickly quieted critics with the huge success of his first film, "Casino Royale." It pulled in $594 million worldwide, more than any previous Bond movie, and firmly established a new breed of Bond for the 21st century.
Craig's second outing as the super spy picks up where "Casino Royale" left off -- the first time there has been such a direct sequel in the 22 movies of the Bond series, something which critics say is one of the movie's major strengths.
Bond is seeking revenge after his lover, Vesper Lynd, is killed at the end of "Casino Royale."
British film critic James Christopher describes him as a "darker, more bare-knuckled" Bond than any of his suave predecessors.
For Craig, though, the challenge was to live up to earlier Bond movies: "The early movies changed the face of movies in the 60s, they went on location, they presented a style that has been adopted in movie making since then," he told CNN.
"I would like people to look at these movies in a few years and say 'Yeah, they stand up as good movies," he continued.
"Quantum of Solace" director Marc Forster was also daunted by the pressures of producing a follow-up to "Casino Royale."
"I was very hesitant at the beginning," the 39-year-old German revealed to CNN. "'Casino Royale' was so successful and expectations were so high that I felt like the pressure will be enormous."
Admittedly, with his previous films including a biopic of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, "Finding Neverland" and 2007's adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel, "The Kite Runner," he doesn't seem the immediate choice to direct the latest high-octane installment in the world's most famous spy franchise.
Possibly the key to the film's success is the close relationship rapidly established by the Forster and his leading man.
"Thankfully, we kind of met up and we just sort of clicked," Craig remembers, "We both had very similar ideas about what we wanted, similar taste in movies."
"It was different from any film I had made before," Forster told CNN. "I would work with an actor who had basically created the character already ... he would play the character and I would sort of come into his world," he continued.
MGM, the studio behind "Quantum of Solace," is obviously pleased with the results so far: they have signed Craig up for a further four movies.
