EXCLUSIVEJames Bond 25 may well have several Oscar winners in his starry cast. Sources tell Deadline that Lupita Nyong'o is being asked to join Bond UPDATE: her team tells me that it will not work with her – and that Rami Malek closes his contract to play the bad guy against Daniel Craig. Our sister publication Variety was the first to mention Malek's discussions. Cary Fukunaga is the director. Malek won the Oscar for Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody and Nyong'o won the Best Supporting Actress Award in 2013 for 12 years of slavery, and she just has to be in the distribution of the best named picture Black Panther. She is also about to open in the genre film directed by Jordan Peele We.

MGM does not comment on Bond. Nyong'o is replaced by CAA and Del Shaw Moonves; Malek from WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.