Michael Madsen Says That Brosnan Is Out

Michael Madsen, who played NSA chief Damian Falco in "Die Another Day" and who is a friend and a neighbour of Pierce Brosnan in California, has told the Toronto Sun that Pierce Brosnan is finished with James Bond. "Pierce lives right down the beach from me. Our kids play together," Madsen said during interviews for his own new movie, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2. "And he told me he doesn’t want to do another one."

Madsen went on saying that he was told that Brosnan will be replaced with an Australian, although he did not know who and could not confirm if it was Hugh Jackman, who has been touted as a possible future Bond. So has Englishman Clive Owen.

Pierce Brosnan has said in recent interviews that the producers don’t seem to want him back. As CBn reported before, he was quoted saying that a "certain paralysis has set in." He repeated several times that his future as Bond was "opaque".

Madsen also said he himself is interested in the new Bond because he was supposed to get a role in it, again as Damian Falco. "Well, I was going to do it with Pierce but, now that Pierce is out of the Bond picture, I don’t know what is going to happen. If Barbara Broccoli calls me up and says: ‘Michael, I want you to be in the James Bond picture,’ I’ll probably go do it, but I’m not going to call her. I don’t know the new Bond guy. I’ve never seen anything he’s done. I don’t even know what he looks like. I can’t remember the guy’s name. I would have to feel like he’s going to be a good Bond for me to want to do it."

He also told the newspaper about his experiences on the ‘Die Another Day’ set: "You know, making a Bond film is not an easy thing to do. That’s a heavy shoot, man. That’s a long, long, big, big, heavy thing. The Bond thing is a tremendously gigantic production and the last one was hugely successful. For Pierce, that was the fourth one that he did. He’s tired, man. You know, he’s James Bond. He doesn’t have to do another one. Why would you? Why would you bother?"

Be sure to discuss the article in this thread in CBn’s Bond 21 forums! And many thanks to forum member [dark] for the alert!