Rumour Timeline
Monday 9th February 2004
The Daily
Mail publish an article by Nicole Lampert
claiming Brosnan has been "axed" as Bond
and the producers are searching for a "younger" actor
to "re-energize the franchise and take it to
even greater heights". The piece quotes from
an unnamed source at Eon Productions.
MI6 talk to the Eon Productions press office and
receive confirmation that neither of the Bond producers
or
anyone from Eon PR talked to the Daily Mail, and the
reporter's "source" was unknown to them.
No
official statement was planned to be made due
to the number of unfounded rumours constantly surrounding
the Bond franchise.
Similar articles appeared in the
Times
of India and MegaStar using
the Daily Mail quotes.
Tuesday 10th February 2004
Overnight, several news outlets recycle the Daily
Mail story: Herald
Sun, News
Interactive. Some Australian
papers and websites claim Hugh Jackman will be
taking
over from Piece Brosnan during their coverage.
Fan speculation about possible motivations for
MGM publicly `axing` Brosnan as a PR exercise
to gauge
public opinion about the situation are reported
as fact on some Bond websites, primarily CommanderBond.net
MI6 debunks the latest `PR exercise` news when
the original quote behind the theory turns out
to be
a fan on the James Bond newsgroup. A question
mark is added to the earlier CBN headline.
IanFleming.org claim
a world exclusive by announcing Pierce Brosnan has
been dropped as 007 as Eon
Productions have chosen not to keep to take
his option up. They claim
his age is the issue why producers have dumped
him.
Wednesday 11th February 2004
Ireland
On-Line, Chicago
Sun-Times and NewIndPress continue
to run the story that Brosnan has been axed due to
his age. The Chicago Sun-Times story makes
front-page
headline news in the USA
Speculation about Brosnan's future turns into confirmed
fact over on CommanderBond.net,
boldly claiming their "own
sources close to the negotiations for Bond 21 [confirm]
that Pierce Brosnan will not be returning to the
role
of James Bond."
Thursday 12th February 2004
MI6
talks to Nicole Lampert, the journalist behind
the original Daily Mail article, and she sticks by
her story completely and unequivocally, despite admitting
the piece suffered "editorial errors". The
journalist's reputation is brought in to question based
on past
episodes of showbiz reporting.
Fiona Fullerton, Pola
Ivanova in "A View To
A Kill",
writes in the Daily
Mail to defend Pierce Brosnan,
calling him the "best Bond ever" and "he's
still in tremendous shape and looks like a man who
has lived life in the fast lane, but he doesn't want
to quit now and the producers would be mad to let
him go".
An online
petition to keep Brosnan as
Bond is launched on the web.
Friday 13th February 2004
The
French James Bond Club call Eon Productions and
reiterate that the article published by Daily Mail
concerning the departure of Brosnan was written without
any contact with Eon.
MGM denials about the `Brosnan Axed` rumours appear
in an announcement about an extension to Brosnan's
Irish
DreamTime
MGM contract in Variety and The
Hollywood Reporter. Reporters who claimed the `Brosnan Axed` rumours
were true remain cynical of the MGM denials due
to the wording
of the trade press articles.
LatinoReview spoke
to MGM and received a denial of the
rumours.
Dark
Horizons back up
the denials.
"Keeping
The British End Up" call the MGM
Press Office and confirm the rumours are untrue and
that
MGM decided
to leak the official denial of the story
through the Variety and Hollywood Reporter
articles.
Saturday 14th February 2004
MI6
talk to Hugh Jackman's publicist and confirm
that "Hugh
has never officially been approached to play the
role of James Bond", smashing the earlier rumours
reported elsewhere.
Trade paper Variety confirm
the Bond 21 release date as November 18th 2005. Click
here for screenshot.
Sunday 15th February 2004
To date, no retractions or apologies have been made
by any of outlets who reported the rumours as fact.
Friday 5th March 2004
Pierce Brosnan breaks
his silence on the Bond 21 issue
to the New York Post saying "I'm certainly willing".
Monday 8th March 2004
Neal Purvis & Robert Wade say they have been working
on the Bond 21 script for two weeks. The first official
news that work on the film is taking place. Sunday 21st March 2004
"A certain kind of paralysis" has set in to the producers,
according to Brosnan who spoke
candidly about Bond 21 progress on the AMC show "Sunday Morning Shootout".
The lack of
movement
on
a contract has given the rumour mills further fuel. |
