Bond baddie Bardem hails Skyfall director

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Spanish actor and Bond villain Javier Bardem lavishes praise on Oscar-winning British director Sam Mendes, saying he turned the new 007 movie Skyfall into a "creative laboratory" for the cast.

In an interview with AFP ahead of the 23rd Bond movie's European release, Bardem praised Mendes for encouraging actors to improvise, an 'astonishing" freedom given the enormous scale of the 007 franchise.

Daniel Craig plays James Bond for the third time in the movie - which had a red-carpet premiere in London on Tuesday - with even more attention than usual focused on the project in the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film.

"The first time I saw a James Bond movie, I was 12 years old and it was Moonraker," Bardem told AFP. "Since then I have seen them all," said the actor, who plays cyber-terrorist Raoul Silva.