A James Bond Rip-Off Got Anthony Hopkins A Meeting With 007's Producers

With Amazon now in full control of the James Bond franchise, the already lively discourse around who will be the next 007 has gone into overdrive. Former Bond custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson exercised a high level of control over the franchise, and official updates on who will be taking over as Bond have been non-existent ever since Daniel Craig bowed out with 2021's "No Time to Die." As such, fans are beyond eager to hear some sort of news on this front, especially now the franchise is in new hands. Those same fans have continued to bandy about all kinds of names.

We know that "Kraven the Hunter" star Aaron Taylor-Johnson has the backing of former Bond Pierce Brosnan, while some fans are still holding out hope that longtime favorite Henry Cavill might still have a shot. There are so many actors that could replace Craig as Bond, and we've heard a lot of speculation on that front, which has always been the way cinema's longest-running franchise has worked when a Bond actor steps down.

One name that you've almost never heard mentioned throughout Bond's run, however, is Anthony Hopkins. Of course, the now 87-year-old won't be suiting up for the next 007 outing, but at one time it seems the "Silence of the Lambs" star was being considered to play England's greatest spy, and it was all thanks to a James Bond rip-off.

Ever since there have been James Bond movies, there have been James Bond rip-offs. In fact, even before there were James Bond movies, there were James Bond rip-offs — or, more specifically, movies that were so Bond-like they might as well have been made canon. Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic "North By Northwest," for example, was basically a proto-007 outing, which is partly why Hitchcock himself came close to directing a Bond movie.

Following 1962's "Dr. No," the non-Bond Bond movies kept coming, to the extent that some fans even claim a '90s action movie is actually a secret James Bond installment. Other popular Bond-esque movies include Michael Caine's Harry Palmer films and multiple Pierce Brosnan movies from "The Thomas Crown Affair" to "The November Man." But have you ever heard of "When Eight Bells Toll?" It might sound like an ill-advised Hemingway sequel novel, but it's actually a 1971 actioner starring Anthony Hopkins.

Directed by Belgian filmmaker Étienne Périer, the movie was based on Alistair MacLean's 1965 novel of the same name and saw Hopkins play Philip Calvert, a British Treasury secret agent who even shared the rank of Commander with Bond. Calvert investigates the hijackings of ships carrying gold bullion, linking the crimes to Greek shipping tycoon Sir Anthony Skouras (Jack Hawkins). As he continues his investigation, however, the British agent finds that things are much more complicated than they originally seemed.

Producer Elliot Kastner was convinced the 007 franchise was set to fade away after Sean Connery announced his departure, and hoped to attract fans of the series with a grittier take on the spy genre that still took plenty of cues from the Bond films. Unfortunately, "When Eight Bells Toll" didn't fare well, with Kastner not only failing to attract Bond fans, but also having his prediction proven wrong about the future of 007. Hopkins, on the other hand, at least managed to get a meeting with the Bond producers out of the whole thing.

"When Eight Bells Toll" didn't fare too well upon its 1971 release — at least in the U.S. It performed better in Europe, where it became the 11th most popular film at the British box office for the year. Despite the film reportedly making a profit, Elliot Kastner was forced to admit that it was a disappointment, though critics weren't outright hostile to the movie. Two of the three reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, and the worst critics said of the movie was that it didn't necessarily do anything revolutionary with the spy movie format.

What's more, "When Eight Bells Toll" got a then-34-year-old Anthony Hopkins a meeting with famed Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, though things didn't exactly pan out. The actor recalled his brief encounter with Broccoli at the BAFTA Life in Pictures event in 2012 (via The Independent), saying, "Believe it or not, I met Cubby Broccoli and I didn't think I was the right material for Bond, but it was flattering to be offered it."

According to the actor, then, he was actually offered the role of Bond, which in the early '70s means he would have taken over the mantle after Sean Connery's second departure from the franchise following 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever." Many actors were, of course, offered the part and it remains unclear just how serious Broccoli was, or indeed whether Hopkins was remembering things accurately. Clearly, the actor was in the running, though, and considering his more grounded performance in "When Eight Bells Toll," he might well have ushered in the age of a grittier Bond before Timothy Dalton did so with 1987's "The Living Daylights." Hopkins would eventually be considered to play villains in '90s Bond outings "GoldenEye" and "Tomorrow Never Dies," but once again passed on the roles. While Pierce Brosnan could very well front an "Old Man Bond" movie, I think it's safe to say that the time has passed for Hopkins to don the tux.