A 29-year-old driver assigned to transport a one-of-a-kind Aston Martin car to the set of the latest James Bond film has had a high profile auto accident. Fraser Dunn was behind the wheel of the $265,000 custom built car and driving it to the “Quantum of Solace” set near Lake Garda in northern Italy when he lost control of the vehicle, crashed through a barrier, and plunged into the water. Dunn escaped the submerged car with minor injures and swam safely to the shore. The 007 production had to act quickly to try and save the vehicle. It was successfully winched out of Lake Garda but the condition of the car is unknown. Reports indicate that it had been heavily raining during the time of the accident which might have led to Dunn losing control of the luxury automobile.

“Quantum of Solace” is the second outing for Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s super spy agent. The production had plans to move on from Italy to Spain this week but the recent accident may have put a crink in those plans. The movie is scheduled to be released in November.

The Vatican has condemned the new adventure movie “The Golden Compass” on the grounds that it believes the movie teaches people to be atheists and look down upon Christianity. Speaking through the l’Osservatore Romano newspaper, the Church said that “The Golden Compass” movie and the novel that it is based upon was ” the most anti-Christmas film possible,” and that it depicts a universe where “there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events.”

The Catholic Church’s critical assessment of the picture follows a scathing call by the U.S.-based Catholic League to Christians to not see the movie because of its controversial aspects towards religion. “Golden Compass” director Chris Weitz removed all references to the Church from author Philip Pullman’s book when he adapted the material but that still isn’t enough for the clergy who still sees a slanderous connection between the movie’s evil Magisterium organization and their religious body.

In its first weekend of release the Nicole Kidman/Daniel Craig movie took in $26 million dollars. It has now fallen to third place and appears to be failing to earn back the cost of its immense $200 million dollar budget.

Daniel Craig has signed a contract that will see him play the part of secret agent James Bond for many years to come. The reported deal between the blonde-haired actor and the Bond producers is supposed to be worth up to $60 million dollars and good for another four 007 movies to come. Craig is preparing to renew his license to kill a second time in the untitled 22^nd Bond film which begins filming shortly. The movie will be released a year from now.

If Daniel Craig does play Bond four more times that will be one more than the actor he inherited the role from, Pierce Brosnan. Sean Connery has played Bond 6 times but it’s Roger Moore who holds the record for the most outings as Bond, 7 times in a 12 year span.

Bond is coming back home. The makers of the long-running James Bond movie franchise will shoot their next 007 adventure at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, the site where many earlier Bond films were shot. For the franchise’s last effort, “Casino Royale”, studio filming took place in Prague’s Barrandov Studios. The owners of 007, Eon Productions, gave notice to Barrandov explaining why they would not be coming back and of course it had to do with monetary issues. It turns out that the Czech government’s cash incentives to attract international film productions to film in the country have become less attractive due to competing offers from other neighboring countries.

Filming on the 22^nd James Bond movie (which still does not have a title) will begin this December for a November 2008 release. Daniel Craig will reprise the role of the secret agent for the second time. If recent comments made by the actor are to be taken at face value, the producers want to inject more humor into the picture. Craig cites the Roger Moore films as examples of what kind of slapstick fans should expect to see.