
According to the
Daily Mail, Pirates of the Caribeann and Miami Vice star
Naomie Harris is in final negotiations to play the flirtatious, Ian Fleming created MI6 secretary Miss. Moneypenny in the upcoming
23rd James Bond movie, which is as of yet still untitled. The actress
recently confirmed that she auditioned for a role but never went into any detail. If indeed she is set to play Moneypenny, it would make her the 4th actress in the series to do so (officially at least as
Barbara Bouchet and
Pamela Salem played the character in non-canon Bond films Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again ).
Lois Maxwell originally portrayed the role from 1962's Dr No up until 1985's A View To A Kill....
Caroline Bliss played the part for both Timothy Dalton's 007 movies... and was followed by
Samantha Bond for Pierce Brosnan's era....

... though none of them were able to tame Bond. The character was notably absent and sorely missed from
Daniel Craig's first two installments Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace and if Moneypenny is coming back to the franchise does that mean we can expect to see Q also? We can only hope. For Harris it's another huge role for an actress who has come an awful long way from when she burst onto the scene in 28 Days Later almost a decade ago. All the signs pointed to her playing the major role of Susannah/Odessa in
Ron Howard's The Dark Tower adaptation at Universal but the delay (probable canning) of that movie has allowed her to take on this part. Same seemingly can be said of
Javier Bardem who The Mail seems to confirm
earlier talks that he will play the villain when production stars, and they also claim Ralph Fiennes'
"darkly complex" role is secure. Add to that of course we have
Daniel Craig and
Judi Dench reprising their roles as Bond and M respectively and let's not forget the film will be directed by
Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) with
Roger Deakins as cinematographer!! Is this the most talented Bond crew of all time or what? Bond 23 is set for a UK release on October 26th and will begin filming later this year.