No Bond role for Robbie

Williams won't be getting into Brosnan's tuxedo

Pop star Robbie Williams will not be cast as a future James Bond, the casting director for the world-famous film series has said.

I don't think he's quite what we're looking for

Debbie McWilliams, casting director

The singer has long been reported to have a fervent wish to play 007 and posed as the secret agent in his video for the single Millennium, which featured a riff from the Bond song You Only Live Twice.

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Debbie McWilliams, who has cast six James Bond movies, including the last three, said he was not right for the part.

She told Internet radio station netfm.com: "Robbie Williams, bless him, I don't think is quite what we're looking for," she said.

'Less well-known'

She added: "Russell Crowe, maybe, but I think it will be somebody less well known than them."

She said a Bond had to be "devastatingly handsome, incredibly fit and available".

Robbie Williams has played the part of a secret agent in his videos

"Strangely enough, if you saw what was in my postbox, it seems that every man who walks this earth thinks he is James Bond," she said.

The Daily Record newspaper reported on Monday that little-known Scottish actor Gerard Butler has been approached to be the new Bond when Pierce Brosnan stands down.

Butler, whose only leading role is in the forthcoming Dracula 2000 movie, directed by Wes Craven, had a walk-on part in the Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies.

'Unhappy'

Ms McWilliams said she was unhappy that actress Denise Richards was cast in the most recent Bond film, The World Is Not Enough.

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She said: "I wouldn't want to be held responsible for that piece of casting. She wasn't my idea of a nuclear scientist.

"There are lots of reasons why she was cast - mostly they have to have a girl who they think will appeal to 13-to-18 year-old boys in America and Denise was the girl who was chosen.

"She's actually a very nice girl, but for my money she wasn't right for that part."

The script for the next Bond movie, known as XX in the industry, has been completed she said.

"The script is on the producer's desk but I haven't been able to open it yet," she said.

She added: "I gather we're going to some far-flung places this time."