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'Casino Royale' To Premiere On Showtime, 5 April

Cable TV debut for Daniel Craig's first 007 film

When is Casino Royale going to show up on TV? I've been waiting for it forever! It's been way too long, and I know of some movies that came out after it that have already made their television debut.

Don't know. I'm not really caring though, I have the DVD.

I seem to recall that HBO bought the initial cable rights and then USA will get it after that, but I don't know about broadcast TV...

Already did in the UK: http://commanderbond.net/article/4706

Virgin Media TV: http://commanderbond.net/article/4283

USA Network wins TV rights, expected to begin in June 2009: http://commanderbond.net/article/3960

But has it been shown on any of the premium channels?

Depends on what you call "premium".

It was available on from the movie service at The Luxor Hotel & Casino last July. In fact as far as I could tell it was the only thing available in the DTBB2 Hospitality Suite!

I haven't see it show-up on anything like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. I seem to remember reading that it would hit one of these services in 2008 but I haven't seen any promos yet & I get all of these channels. As a matter of fact, I haven't even seen it show-up on pay per view yet either (with the notable exception of the service at Luxor last summer). When Die Another Day hit pay per view on DirecTV, they sent you a free DVD with the trailers from all 20 Bond movies on it if you ordered it during the first week or two of its release. Not bad for $3.

I don't know why it hasn't appeared on cable yet...movies from the spring of 07 like 300 and Disturbia are doing the rounds, so it should have been on already. It might have something to do with Sony/MGM, as Rocky Balboa hasn't aired yet either (that came out a month after CR).

At this rate, the new and improved CR DVD may have made its debut.

Strange that this hasn't hit cable yet. There's a possibility they may be holding it until closer to when QOS premieres to build Bond fever.

Casino will be on Showtime in April.

It's been on the Sky movie channels in the UK for a while - don't know when it started though. Interesting that the it's not TV in the US yet. I would have imagined that it would be on cable by now. Are there actual 'premium' (no ads but not pay per view) on cable in the US?

Ah you're right - Saturday April 5th, 9 pm. And then 200 more times that month, no doubt

No; it's the first time in about ten years that a Bond hasn't premiered on ITV1. The Pierce films took about two years to arrive on telly, CR premiered at Christmas on Sky, I expect it'll come to terrestrial next year after the usual gap of three years.

I heard a rumour that it was the BBC's big Christmas film this coming Christmas, but I may have heard that incorrectly - no more than rumour.