This may be the very top of fluff, but today the new James Bond was announced in London. As you may or may not know Casino Royale, the first book in the Ian Fleming series, is the next movie in the hugely successful franchise. Daniel Craig has been cast as the sixth James Bond following in the footsteps of the very well received Pierce Brosnan who was let go last year by Eon Productions.

Daniel Craig isn't well known by most Americans, but did play the very sinister son of Paul Newman in the movie Road to Perdition. He was extremely nasty in that role.
Producers are saying that this Bond movie will be grittier than the previous ones and it will do something they have never done before... tell the backstory of how Bond becomes 007. In essence, like Batman they are restarting the franchise. It does seem though that Judi Dench and John Cleese will be reprising their roles of "M" and "Q" respectively.

While I am extremely happy to see both of them returning, and I am going to guess some of the other characters will too, I am not so sure about restarting the franchise. The Bond films have always had a continuity to them. Not a huge one, but from time to time previous events or characters would be mentioned. Most notably Bond's deceased wife Contessa Teresa 'Tracy" Di Vicenzo featured in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This may have slipped with Brosnan's Bond; but none-the-less to restart the franchise does seem a bit simplistic.

However, if it gives the series a new lease on life while keeping everything that has always made the Bond films so much fun then I will wait to pass full judgment.
So it seems the last Brosnan movie was the last of the old Bonds and now we are going to get newer, grittier and younger bond. In the end though, don't we all just want to hear the famous words on the silver screen one more time.... "Bond, James Bond."