Just struck me: cast Matthew McConaughey as Leiter for an upcoming movie!
Texas accent is what the man has the most! 
Matthew was born in Texas, and raised all over the state. But obviously he's never going to be Leiter because the part is too small (though had it been handled right years ago, EON might've spun the part off into its own series) and he knows no one on the production team, so there's no favors to perform for a fellow friend or mentor, etc...Aaron Eckhart isn't too big of a star to have accepted the role, but even The 4400's Joel Gretsch would've made a suitable Leiter.
I love how, in these interviews Michael Wilson has just given to Entertainment Weekly and EMPIRE, he is making the claim that the team has gone back to the Bond of Fleming....trying to get it right...trying to honor and respect Fleming's work and creation...and how do they do it? Give us an actor that looks absolutely NOTHING like the way Fleming described him, other than the fact that he's a man. And no, I"m not talking about Daniel Craig as Bond; I'm talking about Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter. His casting is a joke.
Obviously, by the strict letter of what Fleming wrote, you are correct in saying that Leiter was not black in the novels. But I don't believe that justifies your claiming his casting is a joke.
In the theatre, no-one gives two hoots about this kind of nonsense and I don't see why they should when it comes to the movies. I've seen all male swans in Matthew Bourne's superb reimagining of Swan Lake. And I've seen black Romeos in Romeo & Juliet; productions that remained wholly faithful to Shakespeare. And while we're on Shakespeare... Olivier blacked up as Othello and gave one of the most notable performances of his career.
To suggest that the casting of Jeffrey Wright as Leiter somehow undermines the integrity of Casino Royale really
is clutching at straws.
