Bond No More

From CNN:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That's how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required.

"One phone call, that's all it took!" the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its August 19 issue.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films. He says that before they stopped negotiations, the producers had invited him back for a fifth time.

And, in related news from MI6:

Another new James Bond book based on the literary character created by Ian Fleming over 50 years ago is due on the horizon.

According to Publishing News, Picador’s Andrew Kidd and Jonathan Galassi of Farrar Straus & Giroux have bought a book by Simon Winder, Publishing Director of Penguin Press.

"The Man Who Saved Britain" is “a funny, serious” history of post-Colonial Britain as seen through the eyes of James Bond, “part memoir, part history”.

According to this story from July:

Following last week's reports that the search for the next James Bond has been whittled down to a shortlist of four contenders, this weekend the British press revealed who the final four candidates are: Goran Visnjic (33), Henry Cavill (22), Alex O'Lachlan (28) and Ewan Stewart (47).

An "insider" told The Sunday Mirror, "All four are among the most impressive would-be Bonds we've ever encountered. They show style, sophistication and have a natural air of the shaken-but-not-stirred secret agent - and the ability to make women swoon".

And more recently:

Australian actor Alex O'Lachlan has confirmed earlier reports that he has screentested for the role of James Bond and is one of the "final four" candidates.

28 year-old O'Lachlan could be following in the footsteps of fellow countryman George Lazenby and become the second 007 from down under, but only if he beats off competitors Goran Visnjic, Henry Cavill and Ewan Stewart.

As a die-hard Bond fan who as actually read several of the novels, I made my feelings on the subject known in December. Even if none of my picks are on the list, I'll tell you this much: Goran Visnjic is a great actor, but he's not James Bond. If this O'Lachlan guy is anything like the highly underrated George Lazenby, he's got my vote.