Daniel Craig has NOT quit as 007 as he signs for TV series

The British tabloids had a field day on Monday claiming Daniel Craig has quit as James Bond following the news that he has signed to do a US television series.

The Sun, the Mail and a whole host of other media outlets jumped on the bandwagon of announcing Craig has definitely quit as 007 after Variety revealed he will appear in Purity, based on a novel by Jonathan Franzen.

This conclusion was no doubt in part formed on the basis of Craig’s statement that he would rather “slash my wrists” than make another Bond movie. They missed the point that he had just finished the gruelling SPECTRE shoot two days before.

Indeed, the Variety article does mention Craig has said he would be happy to move on from 007.

All the same, this is nothing but speculation.

However, a number of websites later claimed that a rep for Daniel Craig had said that he had not quit. At least not yet.

The BBC states “Daniel Craig’s representative has told the BBC that there is no truth to news reports claiming he has decided to leave the James Bond series. […] According to his rep, though, no decision has been made on whether he’ll stay or go.”

So what does it depend on?

Possibly Craig wants to see a script before committing to Bond 25 and Eon/MGM appears to be a long way from that still.

Barbara Broccoli previously indicated that work on Bond 25 would commence in the spring. But as yet there has no deal been announced regarding what will happen now Sony’s distribution deal has ended.

It has been widely speculated that MGM would search for a new partner following SPECTRE. Without renewing the deal with Sony or another studio in place MGM would be pushed to finance the next Bond film.

Some kind of deal is expected to be announced early this year, but until a partner is found is is unlikely any serious progress can be made on Bond 25.