Sam Mendes Promises To Keep It Real In SKYFALL

Director Sam Mendes talked to Yahoo! about his take on Ian Fleming's master spy in the upcoming Skyfall, and there's good news and bad news. The bad news is if you grew up on Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore or even Sean Connery's take on the character, don't expect a return to light-hearted adventure. The good news is if you're a fan of the original Ian Fleming books, Mendes and Daniel Craig claim to have re-read them all in preparation for the new film, and Mendes indicates they're bringing you the most authentic take on the literary 007 yet:

Some people sometimes forget in the cliche of Bond, which is the international playboy, and someone who's always untroubled, and almost never breaks a sweat, that actually what (Fleming) created was a very conflicted character...(a) combination of lassitude, boredom, depression, difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living, which is to kill. That makes him a much more interesting character, and some of those things are explored in this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them.

It sounds a little familiar, and more than a little like spin, but it's important to keep in mind that during Craig's run, we've seen the right way to do this and the wrong way to do this. Four years of boning up on Fleming while MGM sorted out their checkbook seems like time well spent.

And quite honestly Craig's portrayal has always reminded me of the first few paragraphs of Fleming's Goldfinger, in which Bond sits at an airport bar in Miami, feeling sorry for himself after having killed a Mexican thug with his bare hands.

Again, that's the opening of the book! Compare this to the Connery film, where, post-title sequence, we find Connery lying poolside getting a massage from a girl named Dink before slapping her on the ass and sending her on her way.

Fun stuff, but no one hired Craig to be Connery. I'm excited to see how far they take the source fidelity.