Daniel Craig replaces bitter Pierce Brosnan

Craig is the sixth actor to take on the role, after Sean Connery (1962-71), George Lazenby (1969), Roger Moore (1973-85), Timothy Dalton (1987-89) and Pierce Brosnan (1995-2002) reports E Online.

"I had a couple of martinis when I found out," Daniel Craig told reporters about learning of his selection.

"It ... sucks. Completely," Pierce Brosnan says in an interview with Premiere magazine.

"It would have been sweet to go back for a fifth [installment]. I was just getting the hang of it, you know?" Brosnan said. "It would have been wonderful to go out there for one last game and pass the baton."

Brosnan, 52, said he was filming "After the Sunset" when he got the word from his agents, who had been in the midst of negotiating his next outing as James Bond.

"I'm about to do scene 58 with the lovely Salma Hayek where we roll around on the beach naked and talk about some silly diamond," he said. "And the boys are telling me the negotiations have stopped. When the message was delivered, it was a body blow."

He said the Bond producers had "rethought the role. They wanted to go younger. They wanted to put a whole new spin on it and reinvigorate the part."