The female James Bond was proposed over 60 years ago linked to an adaptation of CASINO ROYALE at the time

Lashana Lynch she became the first woman to take on the title of 007 in the 2021 James Bond film There’s no time to die, but it turns out that the plan to make James Bond a woman was actually launched more than 60 years before that film. In That of Nicola Shakespeare next biography of the Bond author Ian Flemingtitled Ian Fleming: The Complete Manit is confirmed that producer Gregory Ratoff has floated the idea of ​​casting an Oscar-winning actress Susan Hayward in a film adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

Shakespeare writes in the biography (via IndieWire): “From the mid-1950s, many famous actors were approached [to play Bond]. Gregory Ratoff had the surprising idea of ​​having a woman, Susan Hayward, play Bond. Ian had considered several possibilities, from Richard Burton (“I think Richard Burton would be by far the best James Bond”), to James Stewart (“I wouldn’t mind him being Bond at all if he could anglicize his accent a little”) . ), to James Mason (“We might have to settle for him”)”.

He spoke with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr Variety in 2012 and said at the time that Ratoff was interested in Hayward because “frankly, we thought [Bond] it was a little unbelievable and, if I remember correctly, a little stupid. So Gregory thought the solution was to make Bond a woman, “Jane Bond” if you will.

Here it is… Bond could only have been a woman if she was stupid. That tracks.

Apparently the idea was never seriously considered by Fleming, who ultimately wanted to make Richard Burton the first on-screen James Bond. Burton refused. Shakespeare’s book reveals that Peter Finch, Cary Grant, Dirk Bogarde, Trevor Howard, Rex Harrison, Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Patrick McGoohan, Roger Moore (who later ended up playing Bond) and Richard Johnson were all also considered for 007.

Shakespeare’s biography Ian Fleming: The Complete Man is now available where books are sold.