THE next James Bond film is to turn away from the high-tech gadgetry and special effects of recent 007 productions. The remake of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel, will concentrate instead on the character of the spy, painted by Ian Fleming in the book as a suave, coldly aggressive seducer.

The book has previously been filmed only in a 1967 spoof, also called Casino Royale, starring David Niven.

Sources close to Eon Productions, makers of the Bond films, say the new movie is due for release in 2006. Eon, however, has so far failed to find a lead actor to replace Pierce Brosnan, who has starred in the last four 007 films but said earlier this month that he would not play the role again.

Colin Farrell, star of Alexander, has turned down Brosnan’s recommendation that he should play the role. Another favourite, Dougray Scott, who appeared in Enigma, says he is unsuitable, while Ewan McGregor, the choice of Sir Sean Connery, the best-known former Bond, is likely to be unavailable.

Recent instalments in the 21-film Bond series have increasingly concentrated on impressive special effects and ever more elaborate weaponry, but Casino Royale is likely to return to Fleming’s original Bond. “Casino Royale is a very interesting choice because it was probably Fleming’s most literary work,” said Andrew Lycett, Fleming’s biographer.

The book, published in 1953, is set primarily in France and involves Bond trying to ruin his adversary’s finances at the gaming tables. It establishes aspects of Bond’s persona and expensive style, including a liking for martinis “shaken, not stirred”.

It also includes scenes of dark sadism such as when Bond is tortured while tied naked to a chair.

Fleming wrote many of the Bond novels at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica, while on leave from his job as foreign manager of The Sunday Times.

The decision to make Casino Royale comes after Quentin Tarantino said at the Cannes film festival that he would like to adapt the book for the screen. Tarantino’s words seem to have spurred the action from the Bond films team.

Barbara Broccoli, daughter of the late Cubby Broccoli, producer of the early Bonds, and Michael Wilson, her step-brother and business partner at Eon, need to find a replacement for Brosnan quickly.

They will be hoping that the new film will be an improvement on the previous version, which, despite starring Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and Deborah Kerr as well as Niven, was a flop.

Scott has been rated second favourite to McGregor by the bookmakers William Hill. But the actor said: “I’m not convinced I’m suave enough. They should find somebody the audience has had no history with.”

One possibility is said to be Chris Feeney, the Irish actor who once served with the American army. He is believed to be quietly confident about getting the role.

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