DANIEL CRAIG, the “blond Bond” who revitalised the 007 franchise, is considering an offer to play Lucifer in a Hollywood adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.

The unlikely film is seen as a teen-oriented “war movie to begin all war movies” which would also fire the imagination of America’s burgeoning Christian film-going audience.

Craig, 39, is being wooed to play Lucifer, traditionally regarded as God’s favourite angel until he rebelled and, after a bloody war of flaming swords, was cast into hell. In Milton’s vision, he escapes to wreak revenge by corrupting Adam and Eve.

Critics of Milton’s 17th-century epic say the blind Puritan made Lucifer so charismatic that he overshadows God. They also complain that he gave Adam and Eve too much nudity and sex.

Neither complaint will deter Scott Derrickson, the director who scored a hit among Christian film-goers last year with The Exorcism of Emily Rose, about satanic possession.

Warner Bros decided to bank-roll the £75m movie after shooting began on His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman’s bestselling trilogy of fantasy novels, whose sprawling plot features lethal angels and a frail, isolated God.

Craig appears as Lord Asriel, Pullman’s satanic figure, with Nicole Kidman as his dastardly sidekick. He is also playing the lead role in a British film I, Lucifer, in which God gives him a final shot at redemption. Heath Ledger, the star of Brokeback Mountain, may take the Lucifer part in Paradise Lost if Craig turns it down.

Stuart Hazeldine, the writer of the film, has promised to keep in Milton’s most frequently quoted line, which gives Lucifer some Hollywood-style motiva-tion: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

It is not Milton’s first brush with cinema. The Italians filmed a silent version of Paradise Lost in 1912. For Hollywood there is a distinct financial advantage to the new project. By the time he died in 1674, Milton had sold off the rights to his book for £10.

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