No Time To Die is the 25th film in the unkillable
James Bond franchise. A history that spans six decades and as many
007s, filled with trendsetting fashion and badass cars, sex symbols and shameless sexism,
jetpacks and boom box rocket launchers, trips to volcano lairs and space cities, and just
a stupid amount of bad puns. Yet it was all built on a novel that could
never be properly made. After a bizarre detour in the 1960s, Casino
Royale in 2006 fulfilled a 50 year pipedream of finally adapting a book lost to rights
holders and lawyers. It was a long, arduous mission, classified
as a Sh*t Show. Ian Fleming wrote his first novel in 1953,
titled Casino Royale, and introduced the world to the British secret agent, James Bond, 007. It was a small success, enough so that CBS
paid Fleming a mere one thousand dollars to adapt the book for their anthology series,
Climax! in 1954. The one hour episode was mildly faithful,
hitting mostly the same beats. Bond is tasked with beating the villain Le
Chiffre in a card game, to reveal a wider conspiracy that includes his love interest. It was performed live for tv, and starred
Peter Lorre as Le Chiff, and Barry Nelson as the American spy, Jimmy Bond. It was Bond’s first on screen appearance,
and isn’t remembered much beyond that (maybe besides some thrilling moments of baccarat). Bond: "Card." Dealer: "Three at the bank... "...and four." [Audience gasps] That next year, Fleming sold the film rights
to Russian actor/director George Ratoff for six thousand dollars. Ratoff’s production never made it to the
table and he died in 1960. His wife then sold the rights to A Streetcar
Named Desire producer Charles Feldman. Fleming continued to write more Cold War adventures
for 007, inspired by his years as a naval intelligence officer for the Royal Navy. Fleming’s navy buddy, Kevin McClory, saw
the potential of the James Bond character and together they started work on a movie
script. Again, nothing materialized, so Fleming adapted
it into his ninth Bond novel, Thunderball, giving McClory zero credit. McClory rightfully sued and won. It wasn’t until early 1961 that Bond hit
the jackpot. President John F. Kennedy revealed, in Life
magazine, his ten favorite books of the previous year, and it included Fleming’s fifth novel,
From Russia with Love. James Bond sales skyrocketed. Canadian producer Harry Saltzman jumped at
the popularity, buying the rights of every current and future Bond novel that Fleming
wrote (aside from Casino Royale). Then Saltzman partnered with fellow producer
Albert Broccoli to form Eon Productions. Its sole purpose? To make James Bond films. The pair wanted to start with Thunderball,
but the legal troubles with McClory made it a messy situation not worth solving. They decided on Dr. No, the sixth book. Most studios didn’t want to fund the film
because it wasn’t ‘American’ enough, but United Artists bet that with a flat one
million, they could make it happen. But that meant Eon needed to make it on the
cheap. Saltzman and Broccoli wanted Cary Grant or
David Niven to play Bond, yet any mainline star would be too expensive, so they cast
an unknown Scottish actor, Sean Connery. Connery [singing]: "I love the ground she
walks upon... my darling Irish girl!" With a screenplay and director set, production
was all in. Meanwhile, Casino Royale rights holder, Charles
Feldman, wasn’t about to live and let die. During that same time period, he lined up
one of the biggest directors of their generation, Howard Hawks, and had a faithful adaptation
written by prolific screenwriter and playwright, Ben Hecht. They even were in talks to get Cary Grant
to star. However, things were taking too long, and
Dr. No’s production wrapped insanely quick. Feldman and Hawks were given an early print
of the film, and after seeing Connery’s Bond, Hawks folded. Dr. No released in 1962 and debuted to a mixed
reaction from critics, but it was a resounding success with audiences, making nearly $60
million dollars worldwide (off that measly one million). While it’s definitely of its time and the
budget really shows, it followed the book fairly closely and established so many trademarks
of the James Bond series that continue today; the card playing, the evil lairs, the cars,
the chases, the puns... Bond: "I think they were on the way to a funeral." ...the girls, the gun barrel, that theme... [Bond theme] ...and of course, cementing Connery not only
as Bond, but as the epitome of cool. Sylvia: "Mr.?" Bond: "Bond... James Bond." United Artists and Eon Productions easily
had a franchise in the making. Eon dealt two more sequels in two years, From
Russia With Love in 63, and Goldfinger in 64. Debating the next film, Eon entered talks
with Charles Feldman to make Casino Royale together. However, Feldman wanted a preposterous producing
fee. Realizing the world was not enough for Feldman,
Eon hit the ejector seat. A burned Feldman then secretly met with Sean
Connery to see if he’d join his film, betraying Eon. Connery wanted a then-unheard of one million
to do it. Bond: "Shocking... positively shocking." Feldman couldn’t make that work. Eon, on the other hand, had successfully negotiated
with Kevin McClory to make Thunderball, bringing him on as a producer. Thunderball released in 1965 becoming the
highest grossing Bond film to date. An exhausted Feldman threw out dozens of drafts
of Casino Royale (including one written by film royalty Billy Wilder). He instead pivoted to making a spoof/satire
of James Bond, since the spy genre was now so immensely popular, and things quickly turned
around. With no official script to speak of, Feldman
ran with one idea, that MI6 would start calling all of their secret agents James Bond, to
fool the enemy. He hired four directors to shoot simultaneously
(including the legendary John Huston). Guest: "He gave me four scripts to read, and
I said to Charlie Feldman, 'where's the book? Let me read the book.' And he said, 'well,' he said, 'we can't use
the book because they've used sequences in every other Bond film.' He said, 'the only thing we've got left is
the title and the casino.' There it was, and Charlie said, 'well look,
you write the last third of the picture.' Now how do you get on a picture and get that? He just said, 'treat this as a psychedelic
movie: four directors, doing four different segments, and uh... treat it as fun.' Which is what we did." All of a sudden Feldman had a Full House of
talent; Peter Sellers as a decoy Bond, Orson Welles as Le Chiff, Woody Allen as nephew
Jimmy Bond, David Niven as the original Bond (one of Eon’s choices), and even Ursula
Andress, the actual Bond girl from Dr. No. And in 1966, production on Casino Royale began…
and things instantly spiraled out of control. Casino Royale’s production was an embarrassment
of riches, with lavish sets, a Burt Barharach score, and a clash of over-bloated egos running
wild. The worst of it was Peter Sellers and Orson
Welles (who were both notoriously very difficult people to work with) as they were jealous
of the other’s success and were absolutely savage on set. Sellers hired Dr. Strangelove co-writer Terry
Southern to rewrite only his lines as he wanted to upstage Welles and Woody Allen. And rumoredly, Sellers wanted to prove he
could pull off a serious version of Bond… in a comedy film. Welles, in return, demanded that his Le Chiff
remained seated and performed magic tricks, forcing set changes. Everyday turned into passive-aggressive dickishness... Bond: "Oh I- Now it's finished, is it? Oh fantastic. Wonderful. Incredible, incredible. That's absolutely marvelous. I've never seen anything like it." ...until Sellers forced Feldman to have them
shoot their scenes separately. Even then Sellers would disappear for days
at a time, while Welles would take to drinking champagne all day, turning the set into a
drunken party. Nothing would get done. When a fed up co-director Joe McGrath called
out Sellers’ attitude on set, Sellers punched him in the face... and they were friends. McGrath quit. And Feldman was left with finding a director
that Sellers would approve of. Eventually Feldman fired Sellers before finishing
his scenes, Woody Allen was given free reign to write his own dialog and the ending was
thrown together last minute just to get it all over with, leaving co-director Val Guest
to cobble together a narrative from the mishmash of everything filmed to that point. Guest: "It was at the end of the film, when
all these things have got together, and they've all been edited by Bill Lenny, my editor (who
had done his best), Charlie Feldman said, 'well... it sort of somehow doesn't make sense.' 'Oh my, that's an understatement.' And he said, 'it needs a sort of a storyline
going through it.' Now this is a hell of a time to think of that
when you've just made the film! And I said, 'yes. It needs a thread going right through all
these sequences.'" Guest wrote and shot a handful of scenes to
fill in some holes. The only thing really connecting it to the
original novel is that Bond goes to a casino, plays baccarat with Le Chiff, and gets tortured
after winning. All told, six different directors would go
through the film, the shoot went from 8 weeks to 8 months, it would cost upwards of twelve
million (making it the most expensive “Bond” film), and the stress gave Feldman a heart
attack and it was the last film he would make. Casino Royale shuffled to theaters in April
of 1967 and, by luck of the draw, it was a small hit. However, it’s nowhere near as funny as it
thinks it is. The film wastes all that talent for drawnout
scenes of unrelated nonsense, sex jokes, excuses for more famous people doing walk-on cameos... Peter O'Toole: "Excuse me, are you Richard
Burton?" Peter Sellers: "No, I'm Peter O'Toole." Peter O'Toole: "Then you're the finest man
that ever breathed." ...and not nearly enough of this guy crushing
it: Hadley: "We've checked it out, sir. International Mother's Help is a SMERSH cover
operation, sir. It supplies babysitters and au pair girls
to some of the most important families." Bond: "And why are the black flags there?" Hadley: "They've been liquidated, I'm afraid,
sir. Uh, Finland? Stabbed to death in the ladies sauna bath,
sir. Uh, Madrid? Burnt in a blazing bordello, sir. And Tokyo, sir? Garroted in a geisha house." "And to think that you knew Mata Hari, sir. She really was one of the greats." It was all but forgotten by the time Eon’s
fifth Bond film, You Only Live Twice, hit screens in June (which is remembered for the
wrong reasons). Bond: "Now what's the plan for me?" Tanaka: "First, you become a Japanese." "You will be a poor Japanese worker with humble
Japanese wife at your side." Bond [speaking Japanese with a thick Scottish
accent]: "Ohayōgozaimasu." A year later, Charles Feldman died, and the
rights for Casino Royale went to Columbia Pictures. James Bond and Eon Productions went on to
have ups and downs through the next four decades. George Lazenby served her Majesty once... Bond: "He had lots of guts." ...to mixed reviews, before Eon got Connery
back for one more. Then Roger Moore donned the tux for seven
films (reaching peak camp). [Tarzan yell] [Beach Boys' song plays] [Slide whistle sound effect] [Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet by Tchaikovsky
plays] Fleming died in 1964, Harry Saltzmen would
leave Eon in 74, the quality of the films would bounce around rapidly, and Bond’s
popularity would taper off considerably by the mid-eighties. Then there was the matter of Never Say Never
Again in 1983. A rogue Kevin McClory produced this virtual
remake of Thunderball, for no reason at all other than the fact he still had the rights
to the novel. The non-Eon production, stars a clearly older
Sean Connery, who was given a stupid amount of money and creative control. Eon sued the living daylights out of McClory
to keep it from being made or released. While they were unsuccessful, the film isn’t
fondly remembered or considered part of the James Bond canon. Timothy Dalton would suit up for two Eon films,
and was set for a third, but MGM Studios (who bought United Artists in 81) fell into a black
hole of legal madness, that no one has patience diving into, and Dalton’s contract expired. Kara: "What happened?" Bond: "He got the boot." Once solved though, the seventeenth Bond film
was announced in 1993. But Albert Broccoli was ready to pass the
torch. He made his stepson Michael G. Wilson and
daughter Barbara Broccoli the heads of Eon Productions. But by 1994 the world had changed, the Cold
War was over. Critics questioned, was Bond relevant? M: "I think you're a sexist misogynist dinosaur,
a relic of the Cold War." Wilson and Broccoli showed that with the right
hand (and the right star, Pierce Brosnan), James Bond could be timeless. Directed by Martin Campbell, GoldenEye in
1995 was thrilling, sexy, and, after years of seemingly being on autopilot, confident. Despite more baccarat, it revitalized Bond
for a new generation (and, really, GoldenEye 64 also had a lot to do with that). The three sequels that followed, became increasingly
more expensive, attempting to up the ante against CG-filled blockbusters. Brosnan’s last, Die Another Day in 2002,
was the highest grossing entry in the franchise, but is often pointed to as the pinnacle of
Bond absurdity; the invisible car, the ice palace, the race switching (?!), oh yeah,
and Bond surfing a tsunami to outrun a space laser. Eon realized they wrote themselves into a
corner. "From the point of view of Barbara and I,
and our writers, it was very hard to go- continue down that fantasy style of filmmaking. And we really had to reconceive Bond." Complicating things further, three highly
successful Austin Powers films made the entire series an outdated joke. Tanaka: "In Japan, men always come first. Women come second." Austin: "Or sometimes not at all!" As a stop gap, Eon had their writers from
the last two films, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, develop a spin-off for Halle Berry’s
character, Jinx. Then the turn… Kevin McClory reared his ugly head once again. And he wanted to double down on another remake
of Thunderball, this time with Sony Pictures. Vesper: "You're not seriously going back there?" Bond: "I wouldn't dream of it." MGM sued, won, then paid Sony (who owned Columbia)
for the film rights to Casino Royale. At long last, Casino Royale was with Eon Productions. Ironically, Sony would purchase MGM outright
in 2004, bringing everything under one roof anyway. Unfortunately Albert Broccoli died in 1996,
never pulling that trump card. His daughter called it her father’s “Holy
Grail” and she saw it as a great time as any to start fresh with James Bond. In early 2004, an extremely unlikely candidate
emerged asking to make Casino Royale; Quentin Tarantino. Hot off of his Kill Bill films, he started
a public campaign, trying to get Eon to hire him as the next director. He was a massive fan of Brosnan’s Bond and
wanted to make a faithful adaptation. But so faithful in fact, it would be a period
piece set in the 1950s, filmed in black and white, yet still star Pierce Brosnan. Tarantino and Brosnan pitched this to Eon,
but they couldn’t get on board with the idea. Tarantino then offered to buy the rights. Eon had been trying to make this film since
the 60s and had just gotten the rights to do so; they were not about to throw in the
cards after all this time. To this day, Tarantino is bitter about being
passed up, claiming he was the only reason Casino Royale was made. "The reason they did Casino Royale all comes
down to me. I made it a point that I said I wanted to
do Casino Royale. They were already on record as saying that
the movie was unfilmable. But then after I said it and talked about
it for a little bit, then the big thing on all the internets was that was what the fans
wanted to see. And so that's when they- oh maybe it's not
so unfilmable." [an inflated ego bursting] Bond: "Well, he always did have an inflated
opinion of himself." In October of 2004, Brosnan’s contract wasn’t
renewed... Q: "Don't say it!" Bond: "The writing's on the wall?" and in February of 2005, Casino Royale was
announced as the 21st Bond film. Inspired by the currently-in-production Batman
Begins, Eon took on the idea of reimagining a franchise film, starting from scratch and
ditching the continuity; aka: a reboot (If you ever wondered where that craze started,
look no further than these two films). Though the one carry over would be Judi Dench,
because- M: "Utter one more syllable and I'll have
you killed!" Exactly. cCrash writer and two time Academy Award winner
Paul Haggis joined returning screenwriters Purvis and Wade to adapt the book. They loved the chance to write the first Bond
film with an actual character arc, something that James Bond had never experienced in his
twenty previous films. Eon also brought back Martin Campbell to direct,
because of how well he revamped Bond in GoldenEye. In what turned out to be a short casting process,
Eon only screen tested a handful of actors (one being Henry Cavill, deemed too young),
and only one was offered the role. In October of 2005, Eon found their 007 in
British actor Daniel Craig. Craig was obviously a wild card of a choice;
an unconventional looking chap, who was far more a diamond in the rough, compared to the
movie star looks of Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery. Known mostly in the US for playing weasley
bad guys, across the pond, Craig had been proving himself a worthy Bond on TV, and especially
in Matthew Vaughn’s Layer Cake. XXXX: "I mean, I f**king hate guns... although
that one is really pretty... is that Second World War?" Gene: "Hey! Point it upwards, huh?" Barbara Broccoli actually had her eyes on
him since 1998’s Elizabeth, as he exuded not just cool confidence, but the malice of
a trained killer (which would be a stark contrast to his predecessors). Craig already feared the loss of anonymity
and the curse of type casting, but the reaction to him earning the role was brutal. In what would sadly become the norm, Craig
was dragged through the mud by fans. They couldn’t possibly accept a blue-eyed,
blonde-haired Bond. His official announcement press conference
didn’t help either; arriving via a naval escort, sporting long locks, a skinny frame,
and a grumpy attitude towards reporters, he appeared more villain than Bond. Throughout production and up to release, infamous
sites (like CraigNotBond.com) would continually spread rumors and general hate towards the
actor. "You know, when Sean Connery was hired, everyone
said 'oh disaster' because it wasn't David Niven." Bond: "They'll print anything these days." 44 years toiling in development hell, Casino
Royale finally earned its license to thrill. Eon’s commitment to a rougher, stripped
down Bond encompassed action scenes and stunts performed practically, with little greenscreen
or CGI to be found. And as filming went on Eon knew they were
absolutely right choosing Daniel Craig. He related to this disconnected, emotionally
charged version of 007 and he used the bad press to fuel his performance. And he took it upon himself to make sure the
film was true to that character, even if that meant arguing with Martin Campbell’s choices. They had troubles getting an Aston Martin
to flip, and Campbell agonized over how to film an hours-long poker game (cashing in
on Texas Hold Em’s rising competitive scene, and seeing as it was more widely known than
baccarat). Craig: "When you film one person, you've got
to film the other person, it's got to look like they're both looking at each other. And invariably at some point, somebody will
look at each other and it won't look like they're looking each other. Now add to that, the fact is that they've
got cards in front of them and a pile of chips, which every time you cut to them, on a continuity
level, has to be accurate." But that aside, production was as smooth as
a Vesper martini. Bond: "You know, that's not half bad." Casino Royale raised the stakes on November
17th, 2006, immediately being hailed as one of the best Bond films ever made, if not the
greatest. Smart, intense and faithful to the novel,
the film reinvents James Bond for the 21st century, where his ego, recklessness, and
misogyny are character flaws, not features. And the much-feared Daniel Craig performance
showed depths never before seen in 007, dangerous yet vulnerable. The haters pretty much shut up after opening
weekend and the film’s pot grew to a franchise record of $606 million worldwide. It took 53 years, from page to screen, before
Casino Royale had a proper adaptation. But Eon Productions did so with style, finesse,
and for the first time in its history, elevated the series to prestige filmmaking. Modernized and popular again, Craig’s reign
alone has amassed over $3 billion. And while his time as 007 has come to an end,
a new James Bond will always return (in whatever form), as Eon has done 5 times before. It’s a good thing too, because after Amazon
purchased MGM in 2021, 007 will have to face their first real world Bond villain; a maniacal,
balding billionaire, hell bent on world domination (and beyond)… No, not that one. [Jeffery Bezos laughs] Bezos: "I want to go on this flight ,because
it's a big deal for me." Presenter: "Let's see you with our own eyes,
I'd like to roll the tape." M: "My god, what's Bond doing?" Q: "I think he's attempting re-entry, sir." Bezos: "Wooooo!"
