Pierce Brosnan has revealed that he plans to play James Bond in another film, which will take the Irish actor's tally of Bond appearances to five.

Speaking at a press conference at Pinewood Studios, where the still-untitled 20th Bond film is gearing up to start shooting on Monday (Jan 14) Brosnan put paid to rumours that the legendary spy role in the 21st instalment would be taken over by another actor. "Let's just say yes, I will do another one." Brosnan told the assembled ranks of press. "After that, I don't know."

Also present were producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, director Lee Tamahori, 'Bond girls' Halle Berry (as Jinx) and Rosamund Pike (as Miranda Frost), and villains Toby Stephens and Rick Yune. Stephens, the son of Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, plays Gustav Graves, Bond's main adversary, while Rick Yunes plays his henchman, Zao.

Other confirmed cast members include Michael Madsen as an uncompromising CIA agent, Judi Dench as head of British Intelligence M, Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny and John Cleese as Q. Roles still to be cast include a villain from New Zealand, a villain from Russia and another Bond girl.

Bond 20 begins with a high-speed hovercraft chase in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea and continues via Hong Kong, Cuba, London and Iceland, before returning to Korea. According to press notes, the film deals with "betrayal, hi-tech weaponry and military domination on a huge scale."

"There's about five units shooting at once," said Tamahori, "and I don't know how I'm going to keep it together, but that's my job."

Tamahori said that he had no plans to tinker with the well-established Bond character: "You can't play around with this character too much," he explained. "I'm not going to be the person to turn him into a sensitive new age guy who goes visiting the shrink's couch."

Speaking about the political implications of James Bond's international espionage post-September 11, Tamahori revealed that a small change had been made to the script. "We did have a long hard look at what we were doing. We felt that The Bond genre is almost impervious to what's going on - it's not one of these movies rooted in a hard-edged reality, so we pressed on ahead with only the tiniest of changes."

"Bond films traditionally are not political," said producer Wilson. "They don't get involved with the political intrigues of countries but they deal with individuals who are renegades and outside of the political structure."

The conference also gave the producers a chance to refute some salacious internet rumours about the film - including one that Bond 20 would feature Bond's first naked love scene. "Those are fairly bogus rumours," said director Tamahori.

Producer Michael G Wilson also denied that stiff competition from the likes of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings could eclipse the film at the box office. "We always celebrate the success of pictures - especially British cinema. What it does is encourage people to go the cinema. Anything that helps the cinema helps our film."

Pinewood is the historical UK home of the Bond franchise, with the majority of the 19 completed films having shot there. Legendary Bond producer Cubby Broccoli started producing at the studio in 1952.

Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and produced by Eon Productions, Bond 20 will be released in the US by MGM, and internationally by Twentieth Century Fox International.

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