Square-jawed screen hunk Pierce Brosnan will be keeping his license to kill despite reports that James Bond producers want a new actor to play the martini-loving secret agent.
Those producers, Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, said Friday that Brosnan would “play James Bond in the forthcoming production and for the foreseeable future.”
The 48-year-old Irishman earned the support of Bond fans with his suave portrayal of the lady-killer British spy in three 007 flicks – including the most recent, 2000’s “The World is Not Enough.”
Over the past month, British media reported that 007 producers were courting Scottish actor Gerard Butler as Brosnan’s replacement.
The Daily Record of Edinburgh said Broccoli was determined to have another Scotsman play Bond and follow in the footsteps of fellow Scot Sean Connery, who originated the famed screen role in 1962.
The 32-year-old Butler is a 6-foot-2 acting novice who went from studying law to making his debut in Wes Craven’s “Dracula 2000.”