Daniel Craig to present award at 2007 Oscars ceremony

James Bond star Daniel Craig will soon be getting his hands on the world's most coveted golden statue - reports the Daily Mail.

The actor, who gave the 007 film franchise a much needed shot of adrenaline with his rugged make-over of the fictional secret agent, has agreed to be a presenter at this year's Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Centre in Beverly Hills next month.

Executives from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences observed how well Casino Royale went down with audiences and critics.

More importantly, the picture took a whopping half a billion dollars at the worldwide box office ($100 million of that in the UK alone).

Those figures made the Oscars folk pay attention because they want leading ladies and leading men with global reach who will appeal to television viewers in the 80-plus countries that broadcast the Oscars show.

There are some who felt that Daniel himself should be in the running for a best actor Oscar. His take on Bond - he bruises, he bleeds - was brilliant.

Indeed, he may well end up with an Orange Bafta best acting nomination when the list is announced today and I know of one prestigious annual film honour being presented in London next month that has his name on it.

Next week Daniel can be seen in the superb movie Infamous, which stars Toby Jones as Truman Capote. Daniel plays one of the real-life killers Capote chronicled in his famous book In Cold Blood. Infamous opens here on January 19.

Daniel told me he plans to make a couple more films before he takes on his second assignment as Bond, which means he won't have time for stage work until, possibly, next year.

An Oscars spokeswoman commented that the presenters list was 'still being finalised'.

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