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'I really thought I was going to ruin it'

Paul Haggis discusses 'Bond 22', the original 'Casino Royale' finale, and his fear of forever ruining Bond

Sounds to me like the original ending to the film was a much better ending. I wish that they had kept it that way as it remained more faithful to the novel while still giving the film an action sequence to end on.

I completely disagree, the novel works well, as a novel, as the ending for a Bond film its a bit of a fizzer. The leading lady dying 20 minutes before the end of the film??!! Were P&W insane??
Boy am I glad they paid out the big bucks for this Haggis.

Honestly, I'm happy the way CR ended. I thought that it still provided the novel's emotional resonance while providing a fun, inventive action scene around it. How many book-to-movie adaptations can do that?

Yep. Haggis made that a stand-out set-piece of the series, IMO. Very dramatic, and Campbell captured it extremely well.

As so often with Bond films I found the finale to be a bit too much - although it was definitely a better finale than we've had in a while. For a start, you could actually follow what was going on.

Is it just me or does he start talking about Casino Royale in paragraph three and then say it was a collaboration between him and Wilson and Forster?

No mention of Babs in all this... I guess she doesn't get involved with the script so much.

Yeah it sounds to me like Haggis improved things greatly.

After DAD most people have been mad on P&W that they went too far from Fleming.
When they stick to Fleming closely they are still at fire

I knew Haggis is overated

Yeah, I found that a bit strange! I assume he's just made a mistake in confusing Campbell and Forster.

And it also explains why Haggis got a screen credit. When he was originally hired, it was described as a "polish" (it may have been P&W who used that term, though I don't remember for sure). But under WGA rules, you have to do more than a polish to get a credit. Zencat can probably provide more of the details regarding WGA rules.

I agree with Rene Mathis, I don't think the last act of the novel would have worked cinematically at all.

I don’t think I’d wish that without seeing both versions and deciding from there.

I love the drowning scene in CR. I love that Bond has to watch Vesper die… who knows?... that may even be used as a image to haunt Bond later on in the series. (Thinking back to Lazenby staring out the window and reliving the avalanche in OHMSS.) I love both actors’ performances during the scene. Bond’s panic in trying to get the elevator door open is unforgettable.

I don’t know if I’d be so quick to toss that scene out just to bring the film a step closer to the novel. (It really would just be a ‘step’ and not a leap. The vast majority of the novel is already there on screen.)

Still, it's interesting to think how it would have turned out. I'd like to see the original script on screen if for nothing but curiosity's sake.

So, it sounds like Purvis and Wade's material for 22 was dropped and the final draft is pure Haggis... This'll be interesting to see.

I have to admit, I'm happier with the ending of CR as it is, rather than P and Ws' original version. Fleming's ending is great...for the book that is. In a film, it would have just been an anticlimax. The filmed ending works since it resolves the main story of CR (Bond's falling in love and getting his heart broken), while providing a properly exciting climax. Having Bond then start a whole new story by chasing after the villains and then killing them in the sinking house just wouldn't have work