Tom Hiddleston looks set for Bond role as bookies suspend odds
Move follows reports of a meeting with producer Barbara Broccoli and Sam Mendes
The name’s Hiddleston, Tom Hiddleston.
And the heartthrob actor looks on course to be named as the new James Bond after the bookies suspended odds on him getting the role following a reported meeting with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and Sam Mendes, director of Skyfall and Spectre, last week.
Bookmakers Coral yesterday suspended all betting on the Bond succession after a flurry of punts on The Night Manager star made him a 1-2 odds-on favourite to win the role.
The news follows reports that the 35-year-old met Broccoli and Mendes last week, although this has been denied by his publicist.
Hiddleston also poured cold water on the rumours, telling Graham Norton recently: "The thing is the position isn’t vacant as far as I am aware. No one has talked to me about it.
"I think the rumours have all come about because in the Night Manager I play a spy and people have made the link."
However in March the star of the recent hit drama The Night Manager said he would be interested in the role should Daniel Craig step down.
“Time magazine ran a poll and there were like, 100 actors on the list, including Angelina Jolie,” he said in an interview.
“But yes, it’s nice to be included in the 100. I’m a huge fan of the series. We all went to see Spectre when we were shooting Skull Island in Hawaii. I simply love the theme tune, the tropes and the mythology. I love the whole thing. If it ever came knocking, it would be an extraordinary opportunity."
He added that he was “very aware of the physicality of the job. I would not take it lightly.”
His suave performance as undercover operative Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager was seen almost as an audition to be the next James Bond.
These include multiple feats of derring-do from the character, a former soldier.
Current Bond Daniel Craig has indicated that he would be keen to hand in his Walther PKK pistol, telling an interviewer around the release of the last movie Spectre that he would “rather slash my wrists” than return to the part which he says keeps him away from his family for too long.
“All I want to do is move on,” he said.
However, Broccoli has in the past stated publicly that she wanted Craig to continue.
Other potential candidates for the role are said to include Damian Lewis, Idris Elba and Tom Hardy.
