`Behind the scenes` author Garth Pearce gives an inside view on the current James Bond 21 situation and next 007 issue

James Bond `behind the scenes` author Garth Pearce wrote in the Express on Sunday (UK) about the current James Bond 21 situation, and who and how the next James Bond will be cast.

Author of "The Making Of GoldenEye" (1995) and "The Making Of Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), and unlike all the other recent newspaper articles about the future of 007, Garth Pearce knows his Bond.

Express on Sunday: Who'll get the new LICENCE TO KILL? - By Garth Pearce.

It is the Hollywood equivalent of electing a new Pope.

The hunt for a new James Bond has begun, and let nobody be mistaken - it will involve every bit as much mystery and intrigue as any 007 film plot. To the disappointment of many, it seems that Pierce Brosnan who, in four films, has so successfully revived Bond, has now been unceremoniously dumped at the age of 51.

To many men he runs a close second to Connery himself as the best master spy, and to many women he has even surpassed the Scot. But no matter. Like others before him he has been eliminated rather than gone of his own accord, as some press reports have suggested.

The assassins, as ever, are the Broccoli family, who bought the rights to Ian Fleming's novels and have controlled the fortunes of the world's greatest film franchise ever since.

Since the grand master Cubby Broccoli died, aged 87, in June 1996, the operation is now handled exclusively by his glamorous daughter, Barbara, 44, and stepson Michael G Wilson. These two are the kingmakers and run their company, Eon (it stands, Spectre-like, for "everything or nothing"), from a building in Piccadilly, London.

Once Bond is dead, it is a case of long live the next Bond.

Those latter three words of expectation have started a clamour from agents and publicists desperate to deliver their man to Barbara and Michael. Business managers are watching for the telltale sign of smoke from Eon in the hope that it will announce that their client is the chosen one.

Among the names being touted are Clive Owen (too wooden), Orlando Bloom (too pretty), Jude Law (a bit girly and would he really want it enough? ), Christian Bale (but not now he's filming Batman Begins), Eric Bana (an Australian who has already played The Hulk), Hugh Jackman (another from Down Under and for ever Wolverine from X-Men) and, finally, Hugh Grant (do us a favour).

But there is one man who has caught the eye and captured the imagination. Step forward Ioan Gruffudd, and learn how to handle a Walther PPK.

Off screen he's obviously Welsh but on screen he can deliver an accent which, like Bond himself, could have been fashioned at Eton and Fettes School.

GRUFFUDD, 30, also has some television fame in America, cutting a dash as Horatio Hornblower in the seafaring adventures of Hornblower, which have made a far bigger impact over there than in Britain.

This familiarity to Americans is important and something that the second Bond, Roger Moore (The Saint), and fifth Bond, Brosnan (Remington Steele), also possessed before they were offered the role.

Also in Gruffudd's favour are his looks. He is 6ft, dark and handsome, with the kind of cheekbones and penetrating, dangerous stare ideal for the bedroom or wielding a gun.

There's no denying that he's good with women, on screen and off. Beautiful actress girlfriend Alice Evans is testament to that.

He's also a fine actor and, contrary to popular opinion, a Bond actor needs that sort of talent, if only to make up for some of the lame scripts in recent times.

Cubby Broccoli once told me his simple formula for selection:

"We are after a man who all other men want to be and who all women want to sleep with."

So it seems likely that Gruffudd will soon start the long process that every would-be Bond has to endure. First, his agent will be contacted to check whether he might be interested and available at the planned start date, which will not be until next year.

Then he will meet Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson.

They will assess whether they can work with the actor on a personal level and whether his desire to be Bond matches their own passion in making the 007 films.

Finally, it will be down to a screen test. They may have seen him in action in other dramas, such as recent blockbuster King Arthur, but it will be his strength in carrying the sort of lines that have made Bond internationally famous that count most of all. Easy? Well, you try saying the best-known introduction in cinema: "The name's Bond James Bond." And the world's most famous drinks order: "Vodka martini - shaken, not stirred." Does it resonate? Or do you sound like a wet lettuce?

And last - but far from least - will be the contract. Eon is not known for its largesse for a Bond debutante. Sean Connery resented his modest payment from the moment Dr No became a hit but he was on a watertight contract.

That, however, did not stop him complaining and, in 1969, Cubby Broccoli replaced him with Australian George Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Connery, grudgingly, returned for one more film, Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971, and was able to negotiate a massive pay deal, but he never forgot or forgave what he still considers "being screwed".

Indeed, he was the only Bond actor not to attend a memorial tribute to Cubby, excusing himself by saying he was indisposed.

The then head of publicity at Eon, knowing Connery was only a couple of miles away from the event in London, offered to send a chauffeur-driven car. It was politely refused.

PIERCE BROSNAN fared little better in financial negotiations when he made his 1995 debut in GoldenEye. He was paid GBP500,000. Yes, it's a fortune by normal standards but, in a world where leading men can get up to GBP25million and even the most unlikely stars can receive GBP10million, it was considered a very modest reward.

Brosnan, contracted initially for three films, enjoyed a handsome multi-million-pound contract for the fourth, last year's Die Another Day.

His next film, had there been one, would have been even more rewarding. He said last week that contract talks stalled months ago and he had not heard another peep since. For those who know Brosnan, this is not the way to treat a man who has put so much of himself into the role. "It's over for me now, " he said, with obvious annoyance and regret.

So is it all worth it? For the right actor, it's key to being part of the Bond legend - lasting international fame and recognition. It leads to other roles, creates mystique, still wins a huge following from women as well as respect from men and opens up a world in which you get the best seats in restaurants and the most luxurious suites in hotels.

But the process of being chosen, which I've witnessed a few times at close hand, is exhausting and nerve-racking. None more so than Brosnan's roller-coaster of emotion when he was first chosen as Bond.

He was all lined up to replace Roger Moore when fate played a hand. Moore, who had performed a record seven consecutive Bonds between 1973 and 1985, was reluctant to hand in his badge even at the age of 57 but, after the long casting process, Brosnan was finally told that he'd got the part.

No contract could be signed, as the makers of his then defunct show, Remington Steele, still had a 60-day option on whether to do any more episodes. The likelihood of them taking up that option, which would scupper his chances as 007, were rated virtually zero. So much so that Brosnan had already been measured for his range of Bond suits. The option was picked up on the 60th and final day. He was out.

"I remember, even months later, stopping my car on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway in California, getting out and screaming and screaming in rage, " Brosnan once told me in a confessional moment. "I cared that much."

Timothy Dalton was chosen instead, based on Cubby Broccoli visiting the Haymarket Theatre in London and watching his exceptional performance opposite his then partner, Vanessa Redgrave, in The Taming Of The Shrew.

When Dalton's agent Jim Sharkey got the call to summon his client for a meeting and screen test, he told me he could hardly hold his phone still with excitement.

THERE WAS an unexpected twist in such a late choice.

When Dalton was to be presented to the press and television cameras, he was advised to wear a suit.

"I don't have one, " he announced.

This meant Barbara Broccoli had to buy him one, off the peg, on the way to the launch at a Park Lane hotel.

After one more film, Licence To Kill, in 1989, Eon then became locked in a protracted legal battle with the new owners of the American film studio, MGM, and the long-standing system of delivering a Bond film every two years was broken.

By the time the dispute was over, six years later, Dalton gracefully accepted Cubby Broccoli's decision that his moment had come and gone. For the new films to work they needed another Bond.

Brosnan was contacted again.

Surely, this time it would be a shoo-in? Wrong. He had to do a new screen test and listen to gossip that other star actors had been approached, including Mel Gibson.

Brosnan is a friendly man but even he has said that he's just a gun for hire. He once told me that, between films, he and the Broccoli family do not socialise and he has never been invited to dinner.

"It is just business with them.

So long as you can accept that and live with it, then fine, " he said.

So, the new man, whoever he is, will soon learn to live with a hard fact of life. His job is to serve, just as other Bonds have served, and the villains he will face will be nowhere near as powerful as those who hired him.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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