007 will always be male, says producer Broccoli
JAMES Bond producer Barbara Broccoli believes 007 will always be a man. Her comments come after Daniel Craig said Bond should remain male, but better roles should be written for women. Asked if she believed a woman will ever take the role, Barbara said: “James Bond is a male character. I hope that there will be many, many films made with women, for women, by women, about women. “I don’t think we have to take a male character and have a woman portray him. So yes, I see him as male.” Daniel is quitting as Bond having played him for a fifth time in the forthcoming No Time To Die. But Barbara confirmed talks about a replacement were not due to start immediately. “We want to celebrate the fantastic tenure of Daniel Craig, who’s given everything to this character into this franchise for 15 years,” she said. However, it has emerged that during the 1950s, Bond was almost a woman. Oscar winner Susan LINED UP Susan Hayward
Hayward was lined up to portray 007 in the reworked version of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale. The ambitious spy film plan never came to fruition after talks fell down, leading to 007 film franchise executives Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman acquiring Fleming’s rights three years later. Steven Jay Rubin, the 007 historian, expert and author of The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia, revealed Lorenzo Semple had penned a script with a woman in the lead. He said: “Lorenzo and Gregory were in the process of developing the book centring on Bond as a woman. Considering it was the mid 50s it was very controversial, but Susan Hayward was a real commodity. “For whatever reason it just didn’t happen.”