So this is it. After four outings as the world's best-dressed sociopath, Daniel Craig has announced that he's done playing 007. In a recent interview with London's Time Out, the 47-year-old actor declared with typically British understatement that he'd rather "slash my wrists" than sign on for another James Bond movie. If he returned to the role, he said, "it would only be for the money."
It's hard to discuss "Spectre" without mentioning cash. The film cost a reported $250 million to make, plus another $100 million for marketing, and is larded with subtle product placements.
Fittingly, even the movie's villain came with a hefty price tag attached. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the cat-loving criminal mastermind who was Bond's most durable antagonist during the Sean Connery era, had to delay his comeback because of a long-standing copyright dispute with the estate of "Thunderball" producer and professional gadfly Kevin McClory.