French actor Simon Abkarian screentests for Casino Royale villain role

French actor Simon Abkarian is the latest name link with a villain role in the forthcoming James Bond film Casino Royale.

Movie site AlloCine (French language) claims Abkarian has screentested in London for the role of the villain (although this is not cited as Le Chiffre - the central baddy in Ian Fleming's original 1953 novel).



43 year-old Abkarian joins French actors Michael Youn and Romain Duris in the race for the part, who were named last week as having also screentested.

Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli (Eon Productions) and directed by Martin Campbell, CASINO ROYALE is scheduled for release November 17, 2006. Principal photography will start on January 30th 2006, with locations in the UK, Czech Republic (Prague), Italy, and the Bahamas. It will be British actor Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond. He is the sixth actor to play the 007 role in the franchise.

Thanks to `James Bond [007]` for the alert.

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