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One reason she took the part, Berry says, is because "it was one of the few times in my career that I just got called up and asked to be in a movie." The $4 million--plus paycheck, a Bond Girl record, was an incentive. It was also a chance to switch gears from her last role, as the emotionally battered death-row-inmate's widow in Monster's Ball, for which she won this year's Best Actress Oscar. "After making something as emotionally wrought as Monster's Ball, I thought, 'What fun would it be to go play in the World of Bond?'"
One afternoon in Cadiz, Pierce Brosnan stands on the rooftop of the Santa Cruz Cathedral's annex. Taking a breather from a scene in which 007 meets a Cuban MI6 operative named Raoul (Emilio Echevarria), he gazes out over the city and reflects on a franchise that has made him into a global symbol. Bond, he says, "is a leviathan--and it's even more amazing after doing all these films."
When Fleming banged out the first book in 1952 and dubbed its hero Bond--the "dull and anonymous name," as he put it, of the author of Birds of the West Indies (look out for the book's cameo)--he had no idea what his character would become. The market today is more crowded than ever, but Bond's makers even look at the competition with pride. "XXX, Austin Powers, even The Bourne Identity are all homages to Bond," says MGM vice chairman Chris McGurk. "All these movies do is reinforce the significance of Bond as the most original, the biggest and the best."
Stop him before he belts out Nobody Does It Better--but it's hard to argue with his point. The question with Die Another Day is not whether it will be a hit but how big? Predict Bond's demise at your own risk. How many of his critics has he outlived already? In Dr. No, the fisherman Quarrel warns, "It don't do for a man to tempt Providence too often." Always a gambler, 007 seems to have taken those words as a dare. And 40 years later, it's safe to say we have a response: It don't do for a man to bet against Bond. --With reporting by Theunis Bates/London and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles