Long-running UK entertainment outlet Showbiz 411 is claiming Callum Turner has landed the role of the next James Bond.
No reason for the claim is made beyond “word on the street,” but reporter Roger Friedman has been doing this gig for a long time and also broke the Daniel Craig as Bond casting news over twenty years ago. He isn’t likely to lock it in unless he has genuinely heard something.
Of Turner, he says “He’s tall, but not too tall. He can act, but not too much…Director Denis Villeneuve can shape him up.” He also says this pretty much sets Turner’s wife Dua Lipa will be the singer of the next Bond theme song.
What’s fueling a lot of the speculation about Turner today seems to source from a report in The Sun in which it’s revealed Turner recently stepped down as a director of the production company Twentytwo Films Ltd that he and Lipa founded last year. It’s suggested the reason for the sale is so that Turner can prepare for the Bond role.
Turner reportedly appeared at Bray Studios on Friday for his Bond screen test with four actors said to have reached the final stage of the search over the weekend – Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor were among them.
Lowden spoke with GQ this weekend and was asked about the Bond audition. While he didn’t confirm or deny it, he said: “It’s all very flattering… it’s nice to be mentioned – for any role – and I’m just not really going to add to the noise.”
Physically Turner could arguably be seen as the closest of the contenders to Fleming’s idea of Bond, though he’s also the least acclaimed actor of the bunch with O’Connor and Lowden scoring high praise and high awards honors for their performances in the past.
