Eon Productions categorically rule out Pierce Brosnan return to James Bond role

In the light of current events, the beginning of Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball seems strangely prescient: 'It was one of those days when it seemed to James Bond that all life was nothing but a heap of six to four against.' The race to become the next James Bond has been the favourite topic of conversation inside film circles for months, but, although Pierce Brosnan retired last year, it seems we are no closer to finding a successor - reports The Guardian (UK).

No other film role engenders as much public debate and speculation as Bond, especially in the British media and the list of actors who have been linked with the role of MI6's best known operative is growing. It's a fascinating process because, in all likelihood, the new Bond will be a youngish actor from these shores who finds himself propelled to global prominence and stardom. So we feel we can cheer him on. As Philip Larkin once wrote of the Bond novels: 'Far from being orgies of sex and sadism, they are nostalgic excursions... England is always right, foreigners are always wrong.'

Last month, William Hill closed the 007 book after heavy betting on Dougray Scott, then reopened it when he wasn't confirmed in the role. Two weeks ago, Clive Owen was favourite to don the tux. Then, last week, Brosnan was back in the picture. But then, a day later, Daniel Craig charged up on the inside, dashing past a pack of challengers as diverse as Ioan Gruffudd, Gerard Butler, Dominic West, Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon, Colin Salmon, Hugh Jackman, Rupert Everett and Ewan McGregor. Craig is in America, filming with Sandra Bullock, and hasn't even been screen-tested yet. His 'people' are no fools, though, and confirmed Daniel, among others, has been approached and is extremely flattered.

EON, the production company formed by Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to make the Bond films, maintains a poker face. 'We haven't even started preproduction,' says a spokesperson. 'There is no James Bond yet cast. All we can confirm is that it definitely will not be Pierce Brosnan, the film will be called Casino Royale, it is being written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and it will be directed by Martin Campbell. If you want anything more, ring back in a couple of months.'

Another source at EON told me that the earliest the new Bond can now be expected is the end of 2006 but also revealed that there's a list up in the company's office detailing all the actors who have so far been put forward by British newspapers. 'There are 72 names on there,' I'm informed. 'One of them's a dwarf and two are women.'

A newspaper recently suggested Adrian Lester for the role: 'He's impeccably English, he knows how to wear a suit and tie, and he is capable of being as arch and twinkly as Roger Moore, and he can also act.' So I ask Lester, currently starring in the latest series of Hustle, and he is as surprised as anyone by his inclusion in the race. 'Being mentioned has done me a lot of favours,' he says. 'I don't know how it happened, but the phone went mad, the photographers turned up outside my house and, without even having entered, I was in the running.' Lester, I understand, has now been considered by EON and is a possible Bond. He's on that list, anyway.

So why has casting one of the world's great film roles become some sort of reality TV show? I'm surprised Endemol, the TV production company behind Big Brother, hasn't yet come up with Bond Idol, putting hopefuls through exhausting auditions - the dealing with Miss Moneypenny scene, the walk, turn and shoot bit for the opening titles, the withering aside to a villain. Bond, after all, is merely a series of nine moves, as once defined in a famous essay by Italian critic Umberto Eco in a book called Il Caso Bond. Writing about Ian Fleming's novels, Eco observed: 'The reader knows the game, its pieces and its rules - and, perhaps, its outcome - and thus draws pleasure from the minimal variations by which the victor draws his outcome.'

The casting process has become a public sport, cruel on openly shunned contestants but, it seems, a shrewd game on the producers' part. Anxious to avoid a repeat of the unpopular miscasting of George Lazenby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the Sixties, and later Timothy Dalton in the Eighties, the recent delays and leaks have allowed them to gauge public reaction. Clive Owen had some critical support at first and, had he been called on, was generally agreed to have been up to it. But then King Arthur came out and everyone decided Clive was a bit boring.

One reason for the deluge of possible Bonds is the now-complete takeover of MGM, the studio that owns the franchise, by Sony. The new studio could do with a surefire box-office hit. A successful Bond fits that $500-million-plus bill. Revisiting Casino Royale seemed like a good idea when the film was originally scheduled for this year; after all, the Batman franchise was going back to its roots for its next instalment and this was to be the year that Star Wars would finally catch up with itself. By the end of 2006, however, this prequel penchant could be out of fashion and Bond has been struggling with the 'dinosaur' tag since Judi Dench's M labelled him thus in GoldenEye a decade ago.

Mike Myers's success in sending up the spy game with the Austin Powers series hasn't helped either, although Bond spoofs have been around since James Coburn's mid-Sixties Flint films and Woody Allen, who played Jimmy Bond in the original Casino Royale, double spoofed the genre in What's Up Tiger Lily? by turning a series of Japanese Bond ripoffs about a spy called Jiro Kitami into a story about agent Phil Moscowitz tracing the secret recipe for egg salad.

Ian Fleming's novels don't give a casting director much to work with - 'He was good-looking in a dark, rather cruel way' is the best-known description, from The Spy Who Loved Me - but the casting of our most famous spy has been a tabloid front page ever since Sean Connery got the gig, famously against Ian Fleming's wishes. The part had initially been offered to Cary Grant and Fleming desperately wanted David Niven. His reaction to Connery was a surprisingly terse: 'Not exactly what I envisioned.' Broccoli, who ultimately held the power in such matters and gradually edged out Fleming's influence altogether, also wanted Patrick McGoohan, but the actor turned it down as he considered Bond sexist and violent.

Broccoli has also confessed to considering Lord Lucan, James Brolin, Michael Billington (who screen-tested five times for the role), Batman star Adam West and even the Swingometer's Peter Snow, who auditioned for On Her Majesty's Secret Service but was considered too tall. Ian Ogilvy, Liam Neeson, Sam Neill and Hugh Grant have all also been contenders.

Casting the right Bond is, clearly, key to the success of the films. Then come equally anticipated casting stories for the Bond girls, the Bond villains, the Bond cars. But, after Bond himself, the story that creates the biggest public interest each time is casting the singer of the new theme tune.

Thanks to `Tom` for the alert.

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