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With the casting of James Bond still to be decided,
which of the MI6 regulars will be returning in "Casino
Royale"?
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Casino Royale - March Report
10th March 2005
M - Dame Judi Dench
Dame Judi Dench, who has played 007's boss M in the last
four James Bond movies starring Pierce Brosnan, has re-confirmed
this week that she will be reprising her for the fifth
time in "Casino Royale". When she spoke about
Bond 21 in the media last
year, Dench said filming was originally planned for
January/February 2005, but this date had been pushed back.
This coincided with MGM scrapping their planned release
date of November 18th 2005 to "sometime in 2006".
Dench said she now expects filming for "Casino Royale"
to start in January or February 2006. This date is inline
with the general consensus that "Casino Royale"
will hit theatres in November 2006, despite the obvious
marketing potential of a 2007 release.
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Q - John Cleese
Another MI6 regular is also expected to return, despite
rumours that his role may not exist in the first draft of
the screenplay. John Cleese was contracted on a three-picture
deal around the time of "The World Is Not Enough",
and also
expected shooting of the 21st movie to begin in early
2005 - before the MGM announced delay. Cleese has gone on
record as saying he wants to return as Q if the role is
there.
Cleese
said in October, “I’m told that if there
is a Q, I will be Q. But I think if they were to cast someone
much younger as Bond, I’m not sure they’d want
an old Q."
The last time Q was missing from an installment was back
in 1973, when producers decided not to use Q as part of
the series re-birth with Roger Moore making his debut in
"Live And Let Die".
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Miss Moneypenny - Samantha
Bond
Exit stage left - Samantha Bond. The four-times Miss Moneypenny
has said on numerous occasions that she will not be returning
as the MI6 secretary without Pierce Brosnan in the role
of 007 - with one exception. But the 41 year-old actress
won't say the name of the one actor she would come back
for.
Back
in November, Bond said "I just don't want to go
on being Moneypenny if Pierce isn't there. I really don't.
It's an age thing. Pierce is just that little bit older
than me - eight years - and when he's doing all that saucy
flirting with Moneypenny, it looks OK".
But what if the new 007 is younger? "Older lady, much
younger bloke - I don't think so. I've just been very lucky
to play her in four box-office successes, and that's it.
It's been 10 years and maybe enough is enough?" |
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Charles Robinson - Colin
Salmon
Perhaps the most uncertain MI6 role belongs to Colin Salmon,
who has plays MI6 aide Charles Robinson. Initially his character
was a replacement for Bill Tanner when Michael Kitchen was
unavailable to reprise his role from "GoldenEye",
but since his solid performance in "Tomorrow Never
Dies", Salmon has appeared in the past three films
as a regular. Along with the possibility that Martin Campbell's
vision for "Casino Royale" might rule out Salmon's
character of Robinson as 007 is going back the early days
of his career, Salmon may not reprise the role for a very
different reason.
The English actor has strongly voiced his desire to take
on the role of James Bond himself, and British
bookmakers at one point stopped taking bets on Salmon
becoming 007 #6 due to the volume of press speculation.
He has repeatedly received the backing of outgoing 007 Pierce
Brosnan - although he thinks the producers "don't
have the bottle" to go down that route. Salmon
said of the praise, "It's the ultimate accolade.
There are some great candidates out there, but Pierce has
watched me do five or six screen tests, and he knows I can
do it". |
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