'Give new 007 a chance'

2006-02-20 07:48

Bangkok - Veteran British actor Christopher Lee has urged critics to lay off the under-fire new James Bond, Daniel Craig, but lauded Pierce Brosnan as the best 007 so far.

Craig has replaced Brosnan as the suave super-spy for Casino Royale, the latest film in the hugely popular action franchise, but the choice has proved unpopular with some British critics and media.

"There's been a lot of nonsense written about him being James Blonde," said Lee, who played the villain opposite Roger Moore's 007 in 1974's Man With the Golden Gun which was shown at the Bangkok International Film Festival on Sunday.

"He's already been condemned. People should not pass judgment until they have seen the film," Lee, 83, said in the Thai capital.

But Lee, who was friends and golfing buddies with the late author Ian Fleming who created the 007 character, said Brosnan was the actor to beat when it came to slipping under the skin of the tough secret agent.

Bond loses front teeth

"Pierce Brosnan is by far the best and the closest to the character that Ian invented," said Lee, star of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars films.

Craig, 37, is currently filming Casino Royale in the Czech Republic and British tabloids reported at the weekend that he had lost two front teeth while shooting a fight scene. Producers reportedly flew out his dentist from Britain to repair the damage.

"I've been in a world-record 17 sword fights and in every one of them I've been carved up," Lee said after being told of the incident.

The actor hailed Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, both of whom he worked with in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as his favourite contemporary director and actor.

Lee was recently named as the most marketable star in the world by a USA Today poll after three films he appeared in grossed $640m in 2005.

- AFP