Burt Reynolds: I regret turning down Bond
Star of the Smokey and the Bandit films, Boogie Nights and Deliverance says he believed in 1970 that only an Englishman should play 007
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco review – satire with a serious bent
Umberto Eco’s media satire mixes elements of farce and conspiracy thriller while retaining the author’s familiar sense of detachment
Todd Haynes: ‘She said, there’s a frock film coming up, with Cate attached … It sounded right up my alley’
As his film Carol opens, the director talks about getting the 50s look in Cincinnati and the enduring influence of … Mary Poppins
Spectre pits 007 against his greatest adversary – international exchange rates
Strong dollar holds Spectre back, Peanuts Movie bids for a new generation and The Martian becomes Ridley Scott’s highest grosser in box office analysis
James Bond, the spy who crosswords love
Unlike many fictional spies, 007 doesn’t do puzzles – but crosswords do him all the time
Dragon Tattoo sequel moving forward without Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara
Sony plans reboot of the franchise with Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander rumoured to take Lisbeth Salander role
‘Women are more interesting than men’: Simon Mawer on Tightrope
The Booker-listed novelist has brought back his second world war spy, Marian Sutro. He discusses female leads, the SOE and the dreaded ‘B’ word: Bond
Slade House by David Mitchell review – gleeful, skin-crawling brilliance
David Mitchell’s classic haunted house tale finds him at his creepy best
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith review – a story with legs…
An unhealthy obsession with amputation makes JK Rowling’s third Robert Galbraith novel one for the serious crime lover
The British spy: how our national obsession led to Bond and Smiley
In a week that sees the release of a new 007 film and a le Carré biography, what is our enduring love for tales of espionage?
Charlize Theron to take Brad Pitt part in The Gray Man
Actor to take rejigged role in thriller originally about a CIA operative-turned assassin, amid increase in use of gender-swapping to give women access to more interesting roles
UK-based Romanian author’s first novel in English becomes a sensation
Murder mystery The Book of Mirrors, snapped up by publishers in 18 countries, is expected to make Eugene Chirovici a seven-figure sum
The Taxidermist’s Daughter review – Kate Mosse has fun with the gothic thriller
Kate Mosse’s entertaining novel is a spooky 1912 murder tale set in the inward-looking community on the Sussex marshlands
Tight trousers and typography: Robert Harling, the mystery man who could have been James Bond
He may or may not have been the model for Ian Fleming’s most famous creation, but Robert Harling was certainly a man of unknowable complications, as his posthumous book about their friendship attests
The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz review – Lisbeth lives…
This continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Salander-Blomkvist saga is welcome treat