Amalric can soon be seen in biopic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

"I will, it's true," the 42-year-old told monthly film magazine Empire. "I play the villain, yes."

However, his involvement has yet to be officially confirmed by Bond producers Eon or distributor Sony Pictures.

Amalric, whose films include Steven Spielberg's Munich, has been receiving rave reviews for his role in biopic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

He plays Jean-Dominique Bauby, a real-life writer left paralysed by a stroke who could only communicate by blinking his left eye.

Centenary

"To be a villain in James Bond is just so funny," he told Empire. "I never dreamt about that.

Faulks has said he wrote his Bond novel in just six weeks

"It's not what I want to do with my career. It's just that I have kids and it's so funny to do that," said the actor, seen earlier this year alongside Gerard Depardieu in French romance The Singer.

Shooting begins in January for the 22nd official Bond movie, set to released in the UK on 7 November 2008.

Craig, currently to be seen in fantasy epic The Golden Compass, will reprise the role he first played in 2006's Casino Royale.

Next year promises to be a bumper one for 007 fans, with a new James Bond book set to be published on 28 May to mark the centenary of his creator Ian Fleming's birth.

Written by Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care is set in 1967 - the year after Fleming's final collection of Bond short stories was published posthumously.