Pierce Brosnan was offered the role of James Bond, but the publicity improved "Remington Steele"s ratings and it was renewed, requiring Brosnan to contractually return to the show, this caused Eon Productions to have to look elsewhere for the new 007. The producers instead hired Timothy Dalton for "The Living Daylights" (1987), and "Licence to Kill" (1989). While Brosnan was reluctant to discuss losing the Bond role, in part because Dalton was a friend, he appeared in Diet Coke commercials portraying what the "Los Angeles Times" described as "a dashing Bond-like character", and NBC advertised "Noble House" with Brosnan dressed in a
James Bond 007: Nightfire setting the auto-pilot on the Vanquish so he and Alura can have a romantic evening. The game had been in development as early as September 2000, and was announced as "James Bond 007" in May 2001. By February 2002, the game's working title was "James Bond in... Phoenix Rising". The game's final title was unveiled in May 2002. In July 2002, Pierce Brosnan's head was scanned with a laser digitizer to create the James Bond character model. Driving levels were developed by Savage Entertainment and a team at Electronic Arts. "Nightfire" marked the first time a James Bond video game