Unlocked star Orlando Bloom once thought he'd been cast as James Bond

Orlando Bloom returns to UK cinemas this week in ‘Unlocked’, a new British spy thriller starring Noomi Rapace, directed by Michael Apted. Bloom plays a duplicitious ne’er-do-well who crosses paths with Rapace’s CIA interrogator as she investigates a potential terror threat in London.

Apted also helmed 1999’s James Bond adventure ‘The World Is Not Enough’ so when we chatted with the 40-year-old Bloom we were curious to know whether he’d ever been approached to play 007. Little did we know that he’d had a surreal moment where he thought he’d landed the biggest role in Hollywood.

“I remember when I was doing ‘Pirates’,” Bloom told Yahoo Movies, “I had my mates calling me because there was one of those flags at the bottom of CNN going ‘Orlando Bloom to play the next James Bond’. And I was like ‘Oh cool!’

“I was calling my agent going ‘Really? Really?’. I was like 20! In seriousness though I do love that franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went with a female Bond or something, who knows?”

Bloom’s name must have been linked with the role before Daniel Craig was announced as the next 007 in 2005. As the star of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the emerging ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise, Bloom was one of the hottest young Brits in town during the early noughties so it’s not surprising his name was in the fray.

Bloom, of course, is soon returning to the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise for the fifth instalment ‘Salazar’s Revenge’, but he admits his role is merely a cameo that bookends the film.

“I’m at the top and tail of [‘Pirates 5’] it’s really not a…. I’ve seen the film and they go back to a similar narrative to the first movie. They’ve sort of simplified the story and kept the special effects to a minimum whilst having them be super-effective, and it works really well.”

‘Unlocked’ is in UK cinemas from today, 5 May. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge’ arrives on 25 May.

Watch a trailer for ‘Unlocked’ below…

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