Waaay back in June a rumour was started that “Underworld” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” star Michael Sheen would be waxing his head to play the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the as yet untitled James Bond 23.

The rumour, which seems to have originated from The Guardian online and the Daily Express, was reported here on FilmShaft and served up with a bucket load of salt to take it with. According to the newspapers an “unnamed source” told the Express that Sheen was in talks for the role:

“Michael is hot property right now and it is felt that he’s the right man to bring Blofeld back to life,” an unnamed source told the Daily Express newspaper. “Michael was a Bond fan in his youth, so this would be a dream role for him.”

However Sheen, who will feature in the ranks of The Volturi this November in New Moon, has told reporters that the rumours are untrue:

“The rumours are I might be playing Blofeld, the Bond villain, because Peter Morgan, who I’ve done Frost/Nixon, The Queen and The Damned United with, is writing it – there is no truth to those rumours,”…

…The Welsh actor added, with a smile: “I wish I could tell you different, but no.”

I have to say that while it sniffed of bull from the outset, the idea of Sheen playing one of cinema’s most iconic (bald) villains does have it’s appeal. The eyes, the hook nose and the class acting could all have painted a timeless onscreen picture – or to put it a little less melodramatically he’d have been bloody brilliant!