MGM boss Pamela Abdy admits new Bond choice is 'wide open'

The battle to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond is "wide open", according to MGM boss Pamela Abdy.

Pamela, who serves as MGM's President of Motion Pictures, has revealed that the studio has had "preliminary conversations" with 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson about who will replace Daniel – who bowed out as Bond in the recent flick 'No Time To Die'.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: "It's wide open. We've had very early preliminary conversations with Barbara and Michael, but we wanted Daniel to have his last hurrah."

Idris Elba has been tipped as a potential 007 but it was recently reported that the 'Luther' star was in "early" talks to play a Bond villain.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Idris has had informal talks with the studio and he has been told there is a role in the next Bond film for him, if he wants it.

"He won’t be the title character, but they do recognise the amount of pull and respect he commands, and they want to work with him on a completely original character for the next instalment.

"It is still very early days for the conversations but, so far, it looks like it would be the role of a villain."

Idris previously said that he would jump at the chance to play Bond, but he would worry that the public reaction would focus on his ethnicity rather than his skill.

The 'Concrete Cowboy' star said: "James Bond is a hugely coveted, iconic, beloved character, that takes audiences on this massive escapism journey.

"Of course, if someone said to me, 'Do you want to play James Bond?' I'd be like, 'Yeah!'

"That's fascinating to me. But it's not something I've expressed, like, 'Yeah, I wanna be the black James Bond'. You just get disheartened when you get people from a generational point of view going, 'It can't be'. And it really turns out to be the colour of my skin.

"Then if I get it and it didn't work, or it did work, would it be because of the colour of my skin? That's a difficult position to put myself into when I don't need to."