Daniel Craig In Cowboys & Aliens
There’s one thing that you can say about Daniel Craig… he never sticks to the same movies and characters.
This week he tackles the Western/alien invasion movie with Cowboys & Aliens, which sees him work with filmmaker Jon Favreau.
Over the years Craig has moved from blockbusters to smaller movies and from genres such as action, gangster and war. We take a look at some of the actor’s best roles in a career that has spanned almost twenty years.
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
After kicking off his career in 1992 it was 2001 when he landed his breakthrough role - a blockbuster adaptation of his computer game Tomb Raider.
Starring alongside Angelina Jolie the actor was as Alex West, the love interest for Croft in the movie.
Despite failing to win over the critics the movie was a box office success and it went on to gross in excess of $274 million at the worldwide box office.
A sequel followed but Craig did not reprise the role.
- Road To Perdition
A year later he moved into the gangster genre when he was cast alongside Paul Newman and Tom Hanks in Sam Mendes’ Road To Perdition.
He took on the role of selfish, arrogant and somewhat creepy Connor Rooney - who meets a sticky end at the hands of Hanks’ character Michael Sullivan.
With excellent performances from the cast, outstanding script and cinematography and strong messages of the consequences of violence and the relationship between father and son it remains a real gem in this genre - it so should have been nominated for an Oscar!!
- Layer Cake
Layer Cake saw him go from the American Gangster movie to the British gangster movie has he lead the cast in the Matthew Vaughn directed film.
The film was based on the novel by J.J. Connolly and marked the directorial debut of Vaughn while Craig took on the role of Mr. X.
Layer Cake is one of the best British movies of the last decade and Craig’s excellent central turn is believed to be one of the performances that contributed to his cast as James Bond.
- Munich
He teamed up with another high profile in 2005 when he was cast in Munich, and that director was none other than Steven Spielberg.
Based on the true story of the Black September aftermath, about the five men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day.
Munich is a great ensemble piece that is emotional as well as violent a thought provoking movie that was not afraid to ask questions.
- Bond
But, and this will come as no surprise to anyone, Daniel Craig is best known for the role of 007 - a franchise where he has enjoyed the most success.
To say that Craig was a controversial choice to take over the role of Bond would be a bit of an understatement but the actor prove all of his critics wrong when Casino Royale was released in 2006.
His Bond showed violence, darkness and pain on Bond that we have never seen before - the movie went on to be the biggest grossing 007 movie of all time.
He reprised the role in Quantum of Solace and is set to return to the character for a third time in Bond 23.
- Defiance
Bond played a different type of hero in 2008 movie Defiance as he took on the part of Tuvia Bielski, one of four Jewish brothers who fought the Nazi’s during the Second World War.
Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarusian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavour to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.
Shot in Lithuania defiance is a touching and dramatic wartime tale as the bonds of brotherhood are put the test and stretched in every which way as they try to keep themselves and everyone else alive.
Daniel Craig gets to flex his acting muscles and show everyone that there's more to him than the suave, sophistication and action sequences of the James Bond franchise.
- Cowboys and Aliens
And he is back this week as he teams up with Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde in the Favreau directed project.
1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution.
The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It's a town that lives in fear.
But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky.
Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.
Cowboys & Aliens is released 19th August.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Daniel Craig