Bond Pulls Singer and Movie Star
Teens and twentysomethings prove no match for the all-consuming charisma of Sir Sean Connery.
Getting attractive celebrities to make cameo appearances in your game probably isn't going to make it sell twice as many copies, but it certainly can't hurt. And realising this, EA has signed UK chart topper Natasha Bedingfield and Fantastic Four star Maria Menounos to take part in the upcoming game adaptation of Bond classic From Russia With Love.
Bedingfield, born 18 years after Sean Connery wooed moviegoers in the 1963 flick, will play abductee Elizabeth Stark, the daughter of the British prime minister. The singer, who will lend her voice and visage to the game, says she's "thrilled" to get a chance to work alongside Connery.
Menounos, meanwhile, will portray Eva, the chauffeur-slash-butt-kicker for the game's villain Red Grant. She, too, seems genuinely excited - "incredible" is the descriptor she used - at the prospect of working with the 75-year-old veteran.
But as sincere - if fleeting - as the public's infatuation with Bedingfield and Menounos may be, Bond fans are more likely to pick this one up to hear Connery do his best impersonation of his younger self in his first revisit in decades of the character that shot him to stardom.
See how well he does when From Russia With Love lands on Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2 this autumn.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games