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Casino Royale
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 Casino Royale Production NotesCasino Royale is based on Ian Fleming's novel of the same name. Published in 1953, it was the first book in his James Bond series. EON Productios' Casino Royale produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will mark the introduction of Daniel Craig (Munich / Layer Cake) as legendary secret agent, 007. Martin Campbell (GoldenEye / The Legend of Zorro) is directing the film, the 21st in the 44 year franchise.
Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinotions in quick session, he is elevated to "00" status.
Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar, where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of M16, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell.
Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his girlfriend Solonge (Caterina Murino). He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world's terrorist organizations.
Secret service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. M16 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization.
"M" (Judi Dench) places Bond undert the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre.
In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), m16's local field agent, and Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who is representing the interests of CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.
“If you don’t get bruised playing Bond, you’re not doing it properly.” – Daniel Craig
With his starring role in CASINO ROYALE, Daniel Craig joins the elite group of actors who have donned the impeccably tailored tuxedo of quintessential superspy James Bond. Described by longtime Bond franchise producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli as “the definitive British actor of his generation,” Craig says he was honored to be asked to play the iconic MI6 agent, but he was especially drawn to CASINO ROYALE because of the emotional complexity of the script and the way his character evolves throughout the course of the film.
“In this film James Bond is a darker character, which is how Ian Fleming originally wrote him,” says the actor. “We start right at the beginning of Bond’s career, when he has a lot of rough edges. He’s a loner, and he doesn’t like to get involved with people. As the movie goes on, though, he becomes more refined.”
In conducting their exhaustive search for a new lead actor for the 21st installment of the phenomenally successful franchise, Wilson and Broccoli turned to a tried-and-true approach. “When we audition for the role of Bond, we ask actors to do the scene in From Russia with Love, where Bond meets Tatiana Romanova for the first time,” says Wilson. “That scene has everything you want to know about a potential Bond: drama, romance and action.”
Craig passed the test with flying colors, according to Broccoli. “As soon as we met him, Daniel was the obvious choice for James Bond. He is charismatic, versatile and sexy. The role is a big challenge, but he has proven to us that he is an incredible Bond.” Craig, whose previous screen credits include Munich, Road to Perdition and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, was working in Baltimore when he got the news he had landed the coveted role. “I was on my own, so I went out alone to have a drink and celebrate. Of course, I couldn’t very well start telling people in the bar, ‘I’m James Bond!’ They probably would have thrown me out, or called the hospital to collect me.”
However, Craig says, as soon as the reality of the situation sank in, he was anxious to begin preparing for the role. Knowing the physical challenges he would face, the actor embarked on a rigorous fitness regimen to prepare for the shoot. The effort paid off as soon as production began in Modrany Studio. The first scene he shot was the pulse-pounding chase sequence in which Bond pursues would-be bomber Mollaka through the Nambutu Embassy.
“I wanted to do as much of the action work as I could so that the audience can see it’s me and it’s real,” says Craig. “I feel like I became a sportsman of sorts, and that meant acquiring injuries and carrying on, bashing through to the next level of pain. Although Gary Powell and his stunt team did fantastic work to make sure that everything was as safe as possible, if you don’t get bruised playing Bond, you’re not doing it properly.”
“Daniel will be a revelation to the audience,” predicts director Martin Campbell, who also directed Pierce Brosnan in his Bond debut, GoldenEye. “He combines toughness with charm and a sense of humor, and because this is a much more character-driven story, his depth and gravitas are a perfect match for the role. At the same time, he’s in great physical shape and proved himself to be excellent in the action scenes.”
Craig repays the compliment, crediting Campbell with galvanizing the cast and crew and even more importantly, translating the electricity on the set to excitement on the big screen. “Martin fires everyone up. You obviously need that level of energy in the action sequences, but it’s equally valuable in quieter, dramatic scenes like the poker tournament.”
“Vesper is not the classic Bond girl, wearing a bikini and firing guns.” – Eva Green
After an extensive search, the filmmakers offered French actress Eva Green the role of Vesper Lynd, the alluring and enigmatic beauty who steals the heart of the seemingly impermeable James Bond.
“The relationship between Vesper and Bond is the spine of the story, and we needed an actress who could hold her own against Bond,” says Campbell. “There is no doubt that this is the best female role in all of Fleming’s books, so we tested extensively to ensure we cast the most suitable actress. Eva has all the qualities we were after: She’s a terrific actress, she’s gorgeous and she has an air of mystery about her, which is essential for the role of Vesper. Eva worked incredibly hard to create this role and take it to places I hadn’t read into the script. It’s been a joy to see her work and expand the character.”
The Parisian-born Green, who made her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s steamy 2003 drama The Dreamers, explains what attracted her to the role of Vesper, the first woman Bond falls for and by whom he ultimately feels betrayed: “It’s one of the best scripts I’ve read in a long time. It’s deep, with lots of twists and turns, and the love story moved me. Vesper is a complex person. She is full of secrets, and I think that is why James Bond is attracted to her, because he can’t really see through her. She is like a Sphinx. She has many layers: she’s sharp, sassy, quick-witted, but also vulnerable. She and Bond spark off each other, they are always bantering and they understand each other on the surface.
“Vesper is not the classic, iconic Bond girl, wearing a bikini, being sexy and firing guns,” continues Green. “There is more to her than that. She is the first woman Ian Fleming wrote about, and she has a great impact on Bond’s life. She is the root of all the Bond women who follow and explains why he behaves the way he does with those women.”
“Hypnotic and magnetic” are the words Green uses to describe her co-star, Craig. “He’s a gentleman and he’s strong, and he’s not mannered. That ruggedness is attractive and probably quite dangerous. He is sexy and not self-conscious, which is very important for a man, and he has a sense of humor – another plus. I definitely feel there’s chemistry between us on screen.”
Green also shares the screen with famed Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, who plays Mathis, a grizzled MI6 operative stationed in Montenegro. “Giancarlo is very crazy in a nice way, very charismatic,” she observes. “He is relaxed about his work and often had a wicked glint in his eyes that made it hard to keep a straight face during our scenes.”
Although she was not involved in many of the film’s elaborate action sequences, Green learned to scuba dive for her final scene, where she becomes trapped underwater in a fallen elevator cage inside a dilapidated Venetian palazzo. “I had to learn how to control my breathing underwater,” says Green. “In the beginning it was scary, although of course it is perfectly safe because there are so many people looking after you. Also, I’m nearsighted, so I couldn’t really see what was going on. I rehearsed in clear water, but during the takes the water had to be murky, like the Grand Canal. I think they used broccoli to get the right color!”
Green is full of praise for producers Broccoli and Wilson’s distinctive approach to moviemaking. “They are passionate about filmmaking and will do anything to make it work. I’ve never had such positive involvement from producers before. In the beginning they helped me enormously with the character. They made me feel as if I was part of this big family. Being surrounded by calm people keeps the pressure off, and I could just focus on the work at hand.”
Green believes CASINO ROYALE’s involving storyline and romance gives it the potential to attract moviegoers beyond the legion of die-hard 007 fans. “Of course it’s an action movie and a thriller, but it is also a love story, and I think women will identify with Vesper and be moved by her predicament. In comparison to other Bond films, it’s more gritty and realistic and based more on characters than action. This is a different James Bond – raw and sensitive. People will see him in a different light. You see his flaws and watch him become the Bond you think you know.”
“He’s ice cold.” — Mads Mikkelsen
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was thrilled to take on one of cinema’s most despised (and prized) roles: the Bond villain. “I’m attracted to scripts where my character might have some secrets, so to be offered the role of Le Chiffre, ‘the Cipher,’ a man with no real name, was perfect. Many actors say that playing the villain is more interesting than playing the good guy because he always has a twist in his character. But I think if you are playing the bad guy, you try to show a good side to him sometimes, and if you are playing the good guy, you try to show a flaw in him, so it’s not one-dimensional for the audience. My favorite Bond villain was Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill. He’s got what it takes to be a good villain. There is something good and bad about him at the same time.”
Mikkelsen purposely chose not to read the Ian Fleming novel before production began on CASINO ROYALE, preferring instead to develop his character exclusively from the screenplay and his extensive discussions with director Martin Campbell. He notes that Le Chiffre isn’t the typical Bond-movie bad guy: Rather than a megalomaniacal madman looking to take over the world, Le Chiffre is an amoral criminal mastermind with a thirst for hard currency.
“He’s living in the contemporary world and trying to make as much money as possible, just like everybody else,” says Mikkelsen. “He’s smart and clever and doesn’t boast about his successes. He rarely gets his own hands dirty, but he will if he has to. When we meet him he’s rich and successful, but Bond is on his tail. And when the chips are down he doesn’t show his emotions. He’s ice cold.”
In order to recoup his massive stock-market losses, Le Chiffre organizes a poker game in Montenegro for international high rollers with a $10 million buy-in. The actors took poker lessons and rehearsed the games before filming began in order to keep the performances fresh as the hands were played and replayed over several days.
Producer Wilson, a self-described poker “addict,” supervised the rehearsals himself. “Most of us could already play poker and, as well as rehearsing the tournament, we played poker for fun,” says Mikkelsen. “In fact we often ended up playing in the corridors of [Prague’s] Barrandov Studios between scenes.”
Playing cards on camera for three weeks apparently only whet the actors’ appetite for the game. One night Mikkelsen and some of his fellow actors ventured out to a casino in Prague – where they promptly ran into Wilson.
Like most gamblers, Le Chiffre has a tell, an involuntary tic that reveals how he feels about his hand, explains Mikkelsen. “He has a scar on his eye, and the vein starts to pump when his heart rate increases, so he casually presses his finger against it to stop, but Bond notices. It has to be as subtle as possible, of course, or he wouldn’t win many poker games. But Le Chiffre manages to turn this flaw to his advantage.”
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Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, Daniel Craig as James Bond and Caterina Murino as Solonge in Casino Royale.
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