SKYFALL: Old Man Bond Putters Around London

When Daniel Craig was cast as 007 back in 2005, much was made of his looks and how they hinted at the very deliberate direction EON was taking away from the suave, debonair Brosnan model. And as these pics from Just Jared show, it looks as if Skyfall is taking 43 year-old Craig's rough, grizzled version of Bond even further, with 007 looking unshaven and, I don't know, tired.

Most intriguing to me is that the film is shooting in Trafalgar Square. The globe-trotting is always fun, but I've always loved seeing Bond on his home turf for a bit, possibly due to my love for the novel Moonraker, which resembles the film in name only, and in which Bond never leaves the UK.

Reports like these are the Bond geeks' version of Spider-Man spy pics, and are usually greeted with the same kind of gun-jumping and hand-wringing (my friend Dean lamented, "he looks older than my fucking dad").  And like those now-common superhero spy pics we've come to expect, these should be given just about as much credence, but it's an interesting glimpse toward what tone the film might be taking. Craig doesn't exactly look dolled up for a breezy outing here, but one would hope he'd shave for, say, M's funeral.

Given the industry's continued insistence on rebooting the hell out of everything, it's kind of encouraging to see EON embracing Craig's white stubble, but I have to wonder how younger audiences will respond to scruffy, middle-aged Bond. It's worth pointing out that by the time Sean Connery was Daniel Crag's age he'd quit playing Bond. Twice. On the other hand, Brosnan played the character until he was 49, and Roger Moore didn't take on the role until he was 46, and stayed on until everyone was really uncomfortable.

So how old is too old to play Bond?