Craig: Austin Powers ruined James Bond

New York - Daniel Craig thinks Austin Powers ruined the James Bond franchise.

The 44-year-old actor - who has played the British spy in two movies and recently finished filming the third, Skyfall - believes the spoof film series starring Mike Myers "fucked" the way the Bond series had worked at it had all been parodied so much.

He said: "'Austin Powers fucked it. By the time we did Casino Royale, the Mike Myers spoof had blown every joke apart.

"We were in a situation where you couldn't send things up. It had gone so far post-modern it wasn't funny any more."

'Black humour'

However, he does believe a sense of humour is very important to the Bond stories throughout the decades.

He told Esquire magazine: "I think what's always fantastic about the Bond stories - and they have retained it, though they might have lost it for a while - is that there's always a darkness involved, but it's a darkness with a sense of humour. A black humour.

"It's about danger, but good danger, because you're in the hands of somebody who's saying, 'Fuck you' to risk and, 'Fuck you' to dying."