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  1. 'Royale' Revelations from Purvis & Wade

    By Matt Weston on 2005-03-14

    Casino Royale screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have given a rather candid interview about their script for the 21st James Bond film, dropping some exciting details of what to expect come 2006.

    In the interview with Screen International, relayed through Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!, Purvis and Wade have confirmed that Casino Royale will be a “very faithful adaption” of Fleming’s novel, although updated for a modern audience. Whilst fans have been aware of the fact that the new film will be based upon Casino Royale since July last year, the true extent of Casino Royale as a basis for the new script has never really been known (fan speculation has varied from a full-blown adaption of Fleming’s novel to a loose adaption, as Fleming’s Moonraker was to Die Another Day).

    Purvis and Wade also confirmed what director Martin Campbell had been quoted as saying last month, in that Casino Royale will see 007 on one of his first missions, being forged into the secret agent we all know. “The book is the story of the incident that actually forges James Bond as a secret agent,” Wade said. “There is a James Bond that everyone knows, but it would be nice just once to show how he got there.”

    Discussing Fleming’s novel, Wade remarked that the book “doesn’t have the global vista and it doesn’t have the level of action with which the cinematic Bonds have become synonymous with. We’ve opened it up but tried to keep the action fairly contained, and of realistic proportions. And everything that we’ve done that expands on the book is providing a modern context for what happens.” Wade also commented that updating the novel was their “sleight of hand” and that they “can’t make it as a period piece”.

    The duo also confirmed that the most iconic elements of Fleming’s novel are in the current incarnation of the script, including the infamous torture sequence (“If it is done the right way, there are going to be a lot of crossed legs in the cinema,” said Wade) and Bond’s final line of dialogue. The writers also commented that the action in Casino Royale would also take a step back, featuring a more realistic style of violence and fewer quips from Bond.

    And no Casino Royale interview would be complete without a bit of “next Bond” speculation, with Purvis weighing in on recasting cinema’s most enduring action hero. “Pierce Brosnan is a very, very hard act to follow, so you need something very different. You don’t want to have Pierce-lite.”

    Head on over to Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang! for more of the interview, in which the writing team discuss Die Another Day, Jason Bourne and more.

    Keep watching CBn for the latest news on Casino Royale.

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