Another one bites the dust if MTV news is to be believed. MTV caught up with Ifans at San Diego Comic-Con where he disavowed any involvement with Bond 23. This is reminiscent of the Anthony Hopkins rumors a few months ago (**Mr Hopkins was shocked he to find out he was the subject of Bond casting speculation). If this is correct then last weeks Telegraph story was insider misdirection or wishful thinking.
So far the only confirmed cast is Craig and Judi Dench, the rest of the casting speculation ( Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, & Simon Russell Beale) have never been officially confirmed.
Rumor squashing alert, Movies Blog readers: Rhys Ifans is not going to be in the upcoming James Bond movie.
The rumored casting hit the web last week, floating the notion that Ifans had come on board “Bond 23” in an unspecified role. We were busy speculating what role Ifans could have possibly been playing, but apparently all that effort was unfounded. When MTV caught up with him at San Diego Comic-Con, he denied any involvement.
“No. I just have a license to kill,” he joked.
But in all seriousness, has he signed up for the gig?
“No I’m not,” Ifans said definitively.
There still are two big question marks in the “Bond 23” cast. Javier Bardem has allegedly been confirmed, but there has been no official word on that. Ralph Fiennes is another name that has been circling around the project, though just as vaguely. MTV News caught up with 007 himself, Daniel Craig, at the “Cowboys & Aliens” junket in Montana last week and tried to pry some casting news out of him, but he neither confirmed nor denied Bardem and Fiennes’ involvement.
“Bond 23” has long been in production, and now that Sam Mendes is directing and Daniel Crag has remained involved, it seems like things are finally coming together for the project to kick off production in the fall. But with only one attached actor, it looks like the process of bringing it to the big screen is still a bit slow.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/sony-denies-website-report-that-its-new-spider-man-villain-rhys-ifans-was-arrested-at-comic-con/