I made it a point, I said I wanted to do Casino Royale. “The reason they did Casino Royale all comes down to me. Eon were not interested in working with Tarantino on the project, but the director believes it was his comments that sparked Eon's interest in finally bringing Casino Royale to the screen. He planned to set the film in the 1960s, and have it take place after the events of On Her Majesty`s Secret Service - after Bond`s wife, Tracy, has been killed. Tarantino claims to have worked behind the scenes on the production.

On the fifth apple martini one evening, he mentioned 'Casino Royale,' which is the blueprint for the psyche of Bond, and I took that idea to the Broccoli family, who produce the Bond movies.' I had hooked up with Quentin Tarantino, who wanted to direct the movie. 'I went to them and asked about making 'Casino Royale,' which is the first Ian Fleming book. The then current Bond, Pierce Brosnan, took the idea to Eon. However, in 2003 Quentin Tarantino expressed interest in directing an adaptation of Casino Royale. The script being developed was an original story in which James Bond isn’t the character we know today but someone younger and more screwed up.' 'Casino Royale was not going to be the next film.

This was because Eon Productions did not own the rights to Casino Royale until 1999 when Sony Pictures Entertainment exchanged them for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's rights to Spider-Man.īut it seems that, even though Casino Royale was available to them, it was not the original plan to produce it as the 21st James Bond film, as director Martin Campbell explained,

Although it was the first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming, Casino Royale ended up being the last of his books to be adapted for the official series of 007 movies (it had previously been produced as a 1954 television episode and a 1967 satirical film).

Casino royale elevator scene