So the set is finally complete: Casino Royale has a Bond Girl. And, flying in under the radar, a Felix Leiter.
Ending months of speculation, Eva Green has been cast as Vesper Lynd in Martin Campbell’s update of the first Bond book.
Green was last seen in Kingdom Of Heaven and was praised by Sony Chairman Amy Pascal in a statement: "Vesper is a pivotal role in Casino Royale and it takes much more than beauty to make this role work," said Amy Pascal, Chairman of the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture Group. "When you think about the great James Bond adventures, of course you think about action and espionage, but you need to have palpable sexual tension in the movie and in casting Vesper, we really needed to up the ante, because this character is very much an equal to Bond and central to our story.”
Also signed up for duty is Jeffrey Wright, a veteran of such films as Basquiat and, more recently, Syriana and Broken Flowers. He’s playing Felix Leiter, a stalwart Bond character and CIA agent always ready to help our man out.