James Bond actor Daniel Craig is desperate to go nude in the next superspy movie, and he is requesting the film's scriptwriters for the same. The British actor has already impressed audiences with his toned body in the last bond film 'Casino Royale'.

He now hopes that the producers will give him a chance to strip off in their next film.

"I'm prepared to do a full-frontal scene. I'm not shy and Bond wouldn't be shy about it either," Daily Snack quoted the source as saying.

Author Sebastian Faulks has revealed he wrote the new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, in just six weeks.

The British writer, whose books include Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, was asked to write a new Bond book last year by original author Ian Fleming's estate.

Faulks says he adopted Fleming's work ethic, producing 2,000 words a day in a style he calls "about 80% Ian Fleming".

The book will be published on 28 May next year to mark the centenary of Fleming's birth.

James Bond has been Bourne again. EON Prods. has reportedly hired Dan Bradley (The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum) to serve as Bond 22's second unit director.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Bradley plotted out and directed the acclaimed fight sequences and car chases as the stunt coordinator and second unit director of the two Paul Greengrass-helmed Bourne sequels and will service the working-titled Bond 22 in much the same capacity. The producers want him to continue and build on the more realistic and gritty approach to the veteran British spy begun in last year's Casino Royale."

On November 7, 2008, James Bond will pick up the action once again — that is, if Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis can ever finish the script.

"I'm on page 20," grinned the affable mastermind behind not only "Casino Royale," but such Oscar-baiting flicks as "Crash," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Letters From Iwo Jima." "I'll let you know [more] when I get to page 100, and hopefully by page 110 I'll be finished."

Having found a second wind after the universal acceptance of both Daniel Craig and Haggis' brutal, more realistic relaunch of the character, the writer revealed that he's attacking the script for the 22nd Bond film — which doesn't yet have a title — with certain thoughts in mind.

Haggis confirmed that the new flick will pick up at the palatial estate on Italy's Lake Como that belongs to Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), where we'll continue to watch 007 display his effective interrogation techniques on the wounded associate of the late Vesper Lynd. "Two minutes after ['Casino Royale'] — boom — we're into this movie," Haggis explained. "That's where we pick it up."

He donned James Bond’s tuxedo to play the superspy in four of the blockbusting action movies, but former 007 Pierce Brosnan reckons that the man who replaced him in 2005 – Daniel Craig – is the best Bond of all time.

“He’s the greatest ever, and deservedly so,” enthuses Brosnan, who was unexpectedly dropped as James Bond and whose latest film, Seraphim Falls, is out today.

“I’m proud and still honoured that I was part of that legacy, but I thought Daniel was a great choice. I have no regrets – I just would have loved to do the thing myself. I don’t have any hard feelings over it.

John Gardner, a British writer of spy thrillers who revived the James Bond novels in the 1980s, has died at age 80.

Gardner died of an apparent heart attack on Aug. 3 in Basingstoke in southern England.

In 1981, he was asked to revive the character of James Bond, created by Ian Fleming in 1952. In Gardner's 14 Bond novels, he updated the spy's persona, making him a little less flamboyant and having him drive a Saab rather than an Aston Martin.

The series, including titles such as Icebreaker, Licence to Kill and GoldenEye, brought Gardner commercial success.

Former James Bond star Sir Roger Moore is desperate to work with his predecessor Sir Sean Connery, and wants him to come out of retirement.

The 79-year-old veteran actor, who replaced Connery in the series of 007 movies in 1973, says that he would like to work in a film with the Scottish actor and their friend Sir Michael Caine.

"Sean, Michael and I are good friends. I'd still like to get together with the guys and drag Sean out of his self-imposed retirement," Contactmusic quoted Moore as saying.

Amy Winehouse's reference to legendary actor Sir Roger Moore in her latest album has left him 'confused', for he doesn't know 'what she means'.

The Brit star ambiguously mentions the former Bond star's name in her new album 'Back to Black'.

"I've heard the song and I found it a little confusing. "I believe the lyrics are: 'Cause you're my fella, my guy/Hand me your Stella and fly/By the time I'm out the door/You're 10 men down like Roger Moore,'" Contactmusic quoted Moore, as saying.

"I've no idea what it means! Answers on a postcard please," he added.

The character of suave, sophisticated assassin Francisco ‘Pistols’ Scaramanga in James Bond novel ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ was named after an alleged school rival of author Ian Fleming. George Ambrose Scaramanga studied with Fleming at Eton College in the 1920s.

But leave aside being evil, George’s grandson Dave insists that his grandfather was a gentleman, who became rector of the Hampshire village of Abbots Ann.

“All in all, he couldn`t have been any more different from the Bond villain,” the Daily Mail quoted Dave Scaramanga as saying.

Dave believes that Fleming, who is said to have been expelled from Eton for bad behaviour, resented his grandfather.

"I think it was just because they were very different. My grandfather was a model student at school. He was quiet, well-behaved and studious - the complete opposite of Mr Fleming. Fleming was supposedly a bit of a tear-away and my grandad was a well-mannered, old-fashioned kind of gent," Dave said.

Amy Winehouse has denied she is set to record the new James Bond theme - but insists she would "love to" if given the chance. The Rehab singer has been linked with the iconic 007 soundtrack since the release of her sophomore offering Back To Black last year. But Winehouse blames the rumours on a superspy sound-a-like track on the album.

She says: "I would love to, but that came from someone saying that Love Is A Losing Game, a song on the album, sounds like a James Bond song. I think that's a great compliment, but that was it."

Next time the dinner party conversation stalls, throw in this question: which JB is best, Bond or Bourne? The air will quickly fill with opinion as men – especially men – align themselves with the figure in the tuxedo who suavely introduces himself as “Bond, James Bond”; or with Bourne, the unimposing guy in the fisherman’s jumper who doesn’t have any chat-up lines and can’t even remember his own name.

On the face of it, Bourne and Bond are polar opposites. Bond is MI6’s top agent; Bourne is being hunted down by his former employer, the CIA. Bond always gets the girl; Bourne loses his girl to an assassin’s bullet. Bond has no compunction about killing; Bourne has nightmares over what he’s done.

British actor Clive Owen, who recently praised Daniel Craig for his acting skills in ‘Casino Royale’ has denied reports he turned down the role of James Bond in the film.

Pierce Brosnan, the previous ‘James Bond’ was subsequently replaced by Daniel Craig as the famous spy, but Clive Owen has since been rumored to have refused the part offered to him by director Martin Campbell.

But Owen insists the claims were false.

He says, “I didn’t turn it down. I was never offered it. It was all hype.

KATE BECKINSALE has told how she has turned down the chance to be a Bond girl for the sake of her daughter.

The Brit beauty says she feels eight-year-old LILY wouldn't want to see her being a 007 conquest - even if the actress's many male admirers would.

She says: "I was asked to be a Bond girl. I don't remember which one it was, but I think I've embarrassed my daughter enough. "You're always required to be in your underwear in a James Bond movie, and once your kids reach third grade, you don't want to shame them."

James Bond will soon be back, in bookstores. "Devil May Care," a novel written by British author Sebastian Faulks and authorized by the estate of the late Ian Fleming, is due to come out in 2008, the centennial of Fleming's birth.

According to the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, "Devil May Care" is set during the Cold War and, like so many Bond adventures, moves about a variety of scenic locales.

"In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkeling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in the late afternoon, then more martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkeling."

"We gave a sneak preview of the manuscript to Barbara Broccoli (daughter of Bond film producer Albert Broccoli), who said if I had told her the family had found an old manuscript of Ian's in the basement she would have believed me. Sebastian couldn't have written a better book to celebrate Ian's 100th birthday."

Marc Forster will direct the next Bond adventure, due out Nov. 7, 2008.

"I have always been drawn to different kinds of stories and I have also always been a Bond fan, so it is very exciting to take on this challenge," Forster said in a statement Tuesday from Sony Pictures, one of the studios behind the Bond franchise.

"The new direction that the Bond character has taken offers a director a host of fresh possibilities," said Forster, director of last fall's Will Ferrell comedy "Stranger Than Fiction," "Monster's Ball," which won Halle Berry the best-actress Academy Award, and "Finding Neverland," a best-picture Oscar nominee.

Daniel Craig will return to play Bond after his debut as the British superspy in last year's "Casino Royale," a hit with critics that became the top-grossing Bond movie with nearly $600 million worldwide.

The not-yet-titled 22nd Bond movie begins shooting in London this December.

James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore has written to MPs today urging them to ban sales of foie gras in the UK.

The pate is produced by forcefeeding geese through metal pipes to swell their livers up to 10 times their normal size, and has been the subject of a long campaign by animal welfare groups.

"As you may know, during foie gras production long, inflexible pipes are shoved down the throats of ducks and geese as many as three times a day, and several pounds of feed are forced into the animals’ stomachs.

"This cruel process causes the birds’ livers to become diseased and swell to several times their normal size. Some birds have their necks ripped open by the pipes, and sometimes the animals' internal organs rupture.

"I wholeheartedly support this campaign, and with your help I believe that we will soon see an end to this brutal and inherently cruel 'delicacy'."

the 76-year-old Scottish actor has decided against appearing in the upcoming "Indiana Jones" movie, the fourth in the series, Connery said in a Web posting on Thursday.

"In the end, retirement is just too damned much fun," Connery wrote on Web site indianajones.com.

Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning writer-director of "Crash" and co-writer of "Casino Royale," is cementing a reputation for ruthless efficiency and resourcefulness as distinctive as 007's. Sony has finally lured Haggis back to work on the script for the "Royale" follow-up, temporarily titled "Bond 22," which is slated for release on Nov. 7, 2008.

Haggis has more than earned whatever he's being paid to rework the "Bond 22" screenplay by regular Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade ("The World Is Not Enough," "Die Another Day"). His rewrite of Purvis and Wade's "Casino Royale" script helped to revitalize the aging franchise and give it the edgier credibility it needed to hook a new generation of fans and score the franchise's biggest box office — $588 million worldwide.

The Battle for Bond unravels the untold story behind the most controversial part of the James Bond legend using previously unpublished material including letters and private documents. It is a tale of bitter recriminations, betrayal, multi-million dollar lawsuits and even death.

It starts way back in 1959 when colourful Irish film producer Kevin McClory collaborated with Ian Fleming and Hollywood screenwriter Jack Whittingham on a screenplay for what was intended to be the first ever James Bond film, entitled Thunderball. When the project collapsed, Fleming instead used its plot as the basis for his next Bond novel, but without permission. An incensed McClory and Whittingham sued.

The resulting trial was one of the most high profile and complex of the 1960s. Essentially the creator of the 20th century’s greatest fictional character was in the dock, accused of plagiarism. Already gravely ill, many of Fleming’s friends feared the pressure of the trial would have a detrimental effect on his health. Tragically they were proved right when only a few months later Fleming died of a massive heart attack aged only 56.