Despite a first draft script being completed by Bond writers Neal Purvis & Robert Wade back in July 2003, and Halle Berry very happy about the shape of the film, MGM told Eon Productions last week to scrap any plans for a Jinx movie and to concentrate on Bond 21.

"High Fidelity" and "Dirty Pretty Things" director Stephen Frears, who was due to be announced as helming the Jinx project according to Variety, will no longer be taking the Jinx character from "Die Another Day" into her own film before Bond 21.

Variety claim the decision came "much to the apparent dismay of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson", co-producers of the Bond franchise at Eon Productions.

The full Variety article available to subscribers went further: "Eon is clearly furious -- `there were creative differences,` says a spokesperson acidly. But curiously, Eon is making no apparent effort to wrest "Jinx" from MGM and set it up at another studio."