In the latest leaked documents from Sony, it has been revealed that studio co-chairman Amy Pascal is, or was, pushing for British actor Idris Elba to become the next James Bond once Daniel Craig finishes his reign. 

Idris ElbaIdris Elba is best known for playing DCI Luther in the BBC series

Elba has long been touted as a potential successor to Craig and it appears Amy Pascal - a woman with considerable power in the casting process - thinks so too.

"Idris should be the next Bond," she wrote in an email to Elizabeth Cantillon, former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures - as obtained by the Daily Beast.

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Pascal isn't the only person in Hollywood to think Elba - best known for BBC crime drama Luther - deserves a shot at 007. 

"I ran into Idris and I said 'You know you're the motherfu*kin James Bond right?", Jamie Foxx told the Daily Beast in a previous interview.

Elba himself has gone on record as saying he would accept the role should it come his way and Craig seems almost certain to bow out after two more releases (including Spectre).

"I've been trying to get out of this from the very moment I got into it", he told Rolling Stone in 2012, "But they won't let me go.I've agreed to do a couple more, but let's see how this one does, because business is business and if the sh*t goes down, I've got a contract that somebody will happily wipe their ass with."

Recently, the Sony email leak revealed that Spectre - the 24th Bond movie set for November 2015 - is dramatically over-budget and is set to cost more than the critically acclaimed and commercial powerhouse Skyfall, now the most successful British movie of all time. 

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