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James Bond 21)
Casino Royale, previously known by its working title Bond 21, will be the 21st James Bond film produced by EON Productions. Based on the 1953 novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, it will be the first Bond film to take its title from an Ian Fleming novel or short story since 1987's The Living Daylights. Currently the film is in pre-production, and is set for a 2006 release. Included in the press release for the announcement of the film title, EON Productions also announced that Martin Campbell, director of the 1995 Bond film, GoldenEye, is attached to direct.
As of April 2005, the actor who will play Bond in this film has not yet been officially announced. Numerous actors have been rumored to be in the running, and various media in early 2005 have reported at least three actors actually being signed. EON Productions, however, has so far denied all these reports, as have some of the actors involved.
This will actually be the third adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale, which was previously a 1954 television episode and a 1967 film spoof (see the main Casino Royale article for details on these productions). Since the rights to Casino Royale were purchased by MGM, it has often been suggested that the purchase had made it possible for a serious adaptation of to be considered. At one point, Die Another Day was rumored to be an adaptation of Casino Royale. The 2006 release will be the only official adaptation of Fleming's novel although it is not yet known how much of Fleming's original novel will actually be used for this film.
Confirmed reports
Cast
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Judi Dench confirmed on a British radio show in March 2005 that she will be reprising her role as M in Casino Royale.
Crew
Plot
Since late 2004 it was suggested that the script would take Bond "back to his roots" in a film that would be similar to From Russia With Love where the focus was on character and plot rather than high-tech gadgets and visual effects, two issues that were most criticized in Die Another Day. The move towards more action and special effects in recent Bonds was in part due to a need to compete at the time with big-budget spy films such as True Lies and Mission: Impossible that dominated the late 1990s box office. However, the success of less grandiose spy films such as The Bourne Identity in the last few years has suggested the time is right for the Bond series to scale back as it did during the Roger Moore era with For Your Eyes Only, which followed special effects extravaganzas such as Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me.
In February 2005, the director Martin Campbell, confirmed that Casino Royale would indeed go back to Bond's roots saying, "There are things that will have to be changed from the original novel. The Cold War elements will have to be reconfigured, for example, but Casino Royale will be a grittier, tougher and more realistic Bond movie. We'll be getting away from the huge visual effects kind of films." [1]
Casino Royale will in a way follow in the footsteps of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, which was modernized to take place in the present, however, still be a prequel to earlier films. Campbell states "In the new film, Bond is essentially starting out in his career, and has just recently become part of the double-0 section. The idea is to put a bit of the dash back in Bond. By the end of the movie, the character will have been forged into the wiser, harder Bond we know."
There is some indication that the film will also be a "reboot" of sorts, since the announcement that Judi Dench would return as M contradicts the novels and early films in which the earlier Bond answered to a male M.
Unconfirmed reports
The following is a list of unconfirmed reports that have been covered by the media since the release of Die Another Day.
Cast and crew
James Bond
Currently, it is unknown as to who will play the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. Pierce Brosnan at one point was still considered to be in the running, but confirmed to several newspapers on October 14, 2004 that "It's absolutely over," and that he considered himself "fired" from the role. Regardless, at the end of 2004, the James Bond International Fan Club reported in its newsletter that Pierce Brosnan was still in the running and rumored to be in negotiations to reprise the role. In February 2005, Brosnan posted on his website, that he would not be reprising the role of James Bond, however, media outlets consistently report that Brosnan is still in the running.
Throughout 2004 and 2005, an endless stream of potential new Bonds were rumored and even announced by some media, though EON Productions has yet to make any announcement. Among names mentioned at one time or another as possible Bonds: Dougray Scott, Hugh Jackman, Clive Owen, James Purefoy, Eric Bana, Jude Law, Gerard Butler, Julian McMahon, Ewan McGregor, Ioan Gruffudd, Christian Bale, Adrian Paul, Daniel Craig, and Orlando Bloom. In early November 2004, Brosnan was quoted in the North American media as preferring fellow Irish actor Colin Farrell for the role. The comment, however, was taken completely out of context and was initially a joke by Brosnan. Farrell, for his part, replied that he had no interest in playing the role. Eric Bana was also quoted as stating he did not want to play 007 when rumors that he was a front-runner surfaced in the media during summer 2004. Bloom, likewise, has denied interest in playing Bond in the wake of conflicting media rumors in April 2005 that he had either been signed to play Bond in Casino Royale or was to play the role in a project referred to as "Young James Bond" which may or may not be a different film than Casino Royale.
In November-December 2004, rumors began circling that Colin Salmon , who played Charles Robinson in three of Brosnan's films and who also performed as James Bond for actress screen tests for Die Another Day, had become a front runner for the part. The rumor intensified after Ladbrokes stopped taking bets on the identity of the new James Bond after receiving six £500 bets on Salmon, which they claim came out of the blue and could have been placed by people with inside knowledge. MGM and a spokeswoman for Salmon refused to comment on whether he has been approached or not. If chosen, he would be the first black actor to play the role [2].
As of April 2005, there have been no confirmed reports of any actor being seriously considered for the role; nevertheless, on January 21, the website www.mi6.co.uk reported that final screen testing for the role was underway and Scottish actor Rory McCann , who bears a resemblance to Sean Connery, was considered the leading contender for the role; this has not been confirmed. On January 23, Reuters reported that British bookmakers still placed Hugh Jackman as the 2-1 favorite to be given the role.
More than any other actor, Clive Owen is most often reported in the media as the front runner for the role of Bond. Owen's popularity in the media stems from a number of short BMW films called The Hire. The rumors for Owen intensified at the start of 2005 after he was awarded a Golden Globe and nominated for both a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best supporting Actor for his 2004 film, Closer. On March 29, 2005, the website The Movie Reporter, citing "inside sources", stated that Owen may be announced as the new Bond following the release of his latest film, Sin City [3]. On April 6, the British tabloid, The Sun reported that EON had whittled their shortlist down to Clive Owen and Daniel Craig, that Owen had declined the role because of fears that it would limit his career, and that a three-film contract worth £15 million had been offered to Craig. [4] However, when contacted by BBC News in response to this story, EON denied that a choice of actor had been made, and indicated that no announcement is expected regarding the next Bond actor until some time after director Martin Campbell completes his current film assignment, The Legend of Zorro .[5] On April 6, a spokesperson for Craig told the India-based The Statesman newspaper that the actor was not going to be the next Bond.[6]
The revelation by Martin Campbell that Casino Royale will be a reboot of the series suggests and has been reported that a young actor is more likely to be considered for the role than someone in his 30s or 40s. What effect this might have on the chances of Clive Owen and Hugh Jackman (who could now be seen as being too old for the part) or others being given the part remains to be seen.
There are still possibilities of a new, unknown, and undiscovered actor to play Bond.
Other cast
- Prior to the release of the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, it was reported that Michael Madsen had already been signed to reprise the role of Damian Falco, an NSA agent, in not only Bond 21 but also Bond 22. It remains to be seen whether this will actually occur, particularly after the cancellation in 2003 of a planned spinoff film focusing on Halle Berry's character, Jinx, from Die Another Day (Falco being identified as her superior).
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John Cleese had previously stated in interviews that he would be making a return in the next Bond film as the quartermaster of Q Branch. However, recent rumors have started to suggest that the character might not be in the film after all. The rumor gained momentum in November 2004, when Cleese stated "I don’t believe there’s a Q in the current version of the script". If this rumor is true, it would be the first time since Live and Let Die that Q has not appeared in a Bond film. It should also be noted that in Fleming's novel, Casino Royale, Q did not make an appearance (although one could make the argument that Bond's first gadget was not until From Russia With Love (fifth novel) and Q did not start to appear in Fleming's novels until Dr. No (sixth novel). John Cleese was previously in Die Another Day as Q and The World is Not Enough as the assistant to Q, credited as R.
- Following the release of Die Another Day, it was reported in numerous media outlets that Kylie Minogue and/or her sister Dannii Minogue had been either signed or invited (depending upon the source) to appear in the next film and also to perform the theme song. Whether this will actually happen has yet to be seen. Numerous other singers and actresses have been named as possible co-stars in the next film. Those reported in the media as either being considered or expressing interest in appearing have included: Britney Spears, Keira Knightley (debunked), French pop singer Alizée, Mariah Carey, and Indian actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.
- In November 2004, the British tabloid Daily Record reported that Samantha Bond would not be returning as Miss Moneypenny due to her feeling that the next Bond will be younger than her. She stated that it would depend on the actor chosen, but most likely she wouldn't return.
- It has been rumored that Donald Sutherland has been screen-tested for the role of the villain. In addition, the rumor suggests that he will be a recurring villain. The recent settlement between EON Productions and Kevin McClory over the rights to Thunderball does open the door for a possible return of the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld (which would tie in with the franchise returning to its roots as indicated above), though there is, at present, no indication that this new villain will be Blofeld redux and no official information on the villain has been mentioned. The villain of the original Casino Royale novel and both the 1954 and 1967 versions was a SMERSH operative named Le Chiffre, but it's too early to tell if the character will appear in the new film.
Plot
There have been reports suggesting there in an ongoing feud between MGM and the Broccoli family over the direction of Casino Royale. The feud has even been mentioned as another reason why Casino Royale was delayed from 2005 to 2006. [7]
Vehicles and gadgets
In 2003, Henrik Fisker , designer of the latest Aston Martin models confirmed that the AMV8 Vantage would be Bond's next car. Due to the film being delayed by at least a year, it is no longer certain whether this will be true. More than likely the next Bond car will still be an Aston Martin model.
Production and release
In EON Production's press release announcing the director and title of the film they also announced that Casino Royale would be released in 2006, however, no specific date has been revealed. According to the film trade publication, The Hollywood Reporter, MGM has set a tentative release date of November 17, 2006 [8]. While no release date has been announced by either MGM or EON, Casino Royale, according to Judi Dench in a March 2005 interview with BBC Radio 2, is set to begin filming in January or February of 2006 [9].
Although the film is confirmed for a 2006 release, various media outlets have reported rumors that the film may be pushed back to the following year, 2007, for obvious publicity reasons. No information to support this conclusion by anyone associated with the film has ever been reported.
Novelization
Ian Fleming Publications has yet to announce whether Casino Royale will be novelized like previous Bond films from Licence to Kill to Die Another Day. By the time the 2006 release date arrives, the company will be well into a new series of Harry Potter-inspired young adult novels about a teenage Bond written by Charlie Higson (see SilverFin). It seems unlikely that Higson will be asked to write a novel based upon the adult Bond, so a new author might be commissioned for this purpose. The publisher may choose to simply reissue Fleming's original book, Casino Royale.
Trivia
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 09:39:20
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
