Hollywood's industry newspaper, Variety, reported last night that Sean Connery had abruptly pulled out of his current film project and might be about to announce his retirement.
According to Variety - which has a reputation for breaking movie news exclusives - Connery is to concentrate on writing his memoirs rather than appear in Josiah's Canon, a bank heist film in which he was to play a Holocaust survivor leading an operation to recover Nazi gold from a Swiss vault. It had been due to begin filming in Prague in February.
The Scottish star is one of the best-paid in Hollywood - he was due to receive $17m (£9.4m) from the Fox studio for Josiah's Canon - but, according to Variety, "the headaches of mega-budget studio films have completely sapped his enthusiasm".
It claimed he had argued fiercely with Stephen Norrington, the director of his last film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which was largely received with yawns from critics.
Connery's Los Angeles publicist, Nancy Seltzer, told the Guardian the actor had withdrawn from the film to focus full-time on writing his memoirs. But she refused to be drawn on the claim that he was giving up acting altogether.
"There is nothing to add to the Variety report," she said. Asked whether that meant the retirement claim was accurate, she said: "I have no interest in addressing the question."
Best known for his lead role in seven James Bond films, and for his support from afar for the cause of Scottish nationalism, Connery has been slowing his rate of output in recent years.
He appeared in 20 movies between 1986, the year Highlander was released, and 1999, but has made only two since.
Following a bidding war earlier this year, Harper Collins agreed to pay him £1m for his autobiography, not including any US publishing deals. It will chart his rise from poor beginnings in Edinburgh to millionaire stardom.
"Having always vowed never to write my autobiography, here I am standing on the runway awaiting my journey into a new space," he told reporters at the time. "It's rather scary, but utterly exhilarating, and I'm looking forward to it."
