There’s still no Bond girl cast in Casino Royale, which is already shooting, but producers have finally cast the role of the villain, Le Chiffre, a crimelord who clashes with 007 at the baccarat table and elsewhere. It’s Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Who? English-language audiences may know him best as Tristan, one of the more efficient killers among Clive Owen’s knights in 2004′s King Arthur. Here’s his IMDb page, and here’s an English language fan site. I’d say he’s got the right brooding attitude; too much hair, but the filmmakers can shave his head.

Now that they’ve finally cast Daniel Craig as 007, the James Bond producers still have to finish another extensive casting search to find his leading lady for Casino Royale. Contrary to rumor, Variety reports, they still haven’t settled on anyone yet. Apparently, you can forget such top-of-the-wish-list names as Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie (who, now that she’s announced that there’s a Brangelina baby on the way, probably won’t be doing any Lara Croft-type stuntwork for a while). One rumored name was Craig’s Layer Cake costar Sienna Miller. Among the four women reportedly testing for the role are Natasha Henstridge and Australian actress Kimberly Davies. 

I’m not sure who I’d want to cast, since Bond Girl is a career-killer role unless you’re already an established actress. (It’s no problem if you’re Halle Berry or Michelle Yeoh, but have you ever seen Izabella Scorupco or Maryam D’Abo again?) I’d like to see someone more exotic than the usual Euromodel types play the part: say, Eva Mendes (above), or Thandie Newton, or Sofia Vergara.

Who would you pick, PopWatchers?

The new Casino Royale will put 007 on the couch, metaphorically anyway. Director Martin Campbell tells USA Today it’s an origin tale, meant to explain everything from why he likes his martinis shaken-not-stirred to why he’s a compulsive womanizer.

I’m not sure we want to know all that. Bond’s psychology has never been all that important; he’s not a Marvel Comics hero. Still, if the producers really want a brooding Bond, it helps explain more why they’ve picked the stormy Daniel Craig (left). (As opposed to, say, Clive Owen, who’d be a more quietly smoldering Bond.) And you have to give the filmmakers credit for nerve if they truly intend to make the franchise less about gadgets and more about character.

Although we finally have a new James Bond star in Daniel Craig, Casino Royale screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash) still has his work cut out for him in making sure the screenplay is equally fresh. In next week’s issue, Entertainment Weekly’s Joshua Rich offers Haggis five unsolicited suggestions:

1. Get Real. No more invisible cars and ice chateaus. If 007 is seen at the casino playing baccarat instead of poker, he’ll seem woefully out of date. Take a page from the Bourne movies and try some real-world intrigue, actual locations, recognizably human relationships between characters, and plausible fight scenes involving hand-to-hand combat instead of fanciful gadgetry.

2. Get Badder. Where are the memorable Bond villains of yesteryear? The movie needs someone roiling with personality, like Goldfinger, Blofeld, or for that matter, the Oedipally driven killer Craig played in Road to Perdition.

3. Get Better Buddies. Bond needs sidekicks who are equals, or at least near-equals. Think Halle Berry’s Jinx in Die Another Day. Or think Ron and Hermione, only grown-up.

4. Go Darker. James Bond’s not the most introspective guy, but heroes forced to confront their own guilt, bitterness, and vengeful feelings have done well lately (like Spider-Man‘s Peter Parker). Plus, that makes them more compelling when they finally go medieval (like The Matrix‘s Neo or even Tony Soprano).

5. Assassinate Product Placement. It’ll never happen, but we can dream.

How would you shake and stir the 007 storylines?

It’s official: Daniel Craig has the job. Some secret agent — his own mother leaked the news before today’s London press conference. Actually, I think Craig (left) is a pretty edgy choice. Look at him in Layer Cake, Sylvia, Road to Perdition, and (if you really want to be creeped out) Enduring Love, and you’ll see he’s capable of the vicious streak that marks the Bond Ian Fleming created in the pages of Casino Royale.

So, readers, does the announcement leave you shaken or stirred?

Albert Einstein is credited as saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. (Or was is a post-Seinfeld Jason Alexander?) Nevertheless, PopWatch brings you the latest in the James Bond Sweepstakes rumor mill, because, according to our good friends at Reuters, British bookmaker William Hill has stopped taking bets on possible 007 replacements amid scuttlebutt that Daniel Craig (left, Layer Cake) has landed the role. Of course, if you’re not intrigued by the idea of the very first James Blonde, you can always distract yourself by staring at his predecessor Roger Moore’s hypnotic eyebrows, preparing for the biopic on Bond creator Ian Fleming, or sharing your thoughts in the comments area below. See, don’t say we never do anything for your psychological well being.