14 DAY TRIAL // Fresh off his surprise nomination for Best Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards, Javier Bardem may embark on the villain role of his life: producers on the upcoming James Bond film, the 23rd, want him for the baddie, it has emerged.
Deadline has learned that Bardem is currently in negotiations for the part, but odds of actually saying yes are not looking very good at this time.
Bardem was offered before the role of the villain in a big-budget film, the e-zine says, and he turned it down. He was supposed to play Bretton James in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and the role eventually went to Josh Brolin.
Either way, if Bond producers play their cards right, they may still get him to be Daniel Craig’s rival in the upcoming film.
“Deadline has just learned that Javier Bardem has been offered a starring role in the upcoming James Bond film recently set for a November 9, 2012 release. Details about the character are being kept under wraps for now,” Deadline writes.
“But traditionally the biggest male role opposite 007 is the villain, and Bardem played a truly villainous villain in his Oscar-winning turn in No Country For Old Men two years ago,” the e-zine notes.
“The EON Productions offer by principals Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to Bardem to join star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes was made last week, at around the same time that the WME-repped Bardem received his Best Actor nomination for Biutiful and another high-profile offer of a lead role,” Deadline adds.
Either Bond will be tackling two villains in the next film or “sources” are getting way ahead of themselves with these reports.
Just the other week, word got out that Rachel Weisz was also being courted for the part of the villain, presumably because producers wanted to surprise fans by having her in a different part than that of the love interest (Weisz and Craig are a couple in real life now, too).