Campbell Continues Talking 'Casino Royale'
"Expect Casino Royale to remain a hot topic as the
Zorro press junket continues." – CBn yesterday. Today, movie magazine
"Empire"
has spoken to Campbell – right, not about The Legend of Zorro, but about – Casino Royale.
Casino Royale director Martin Campbell.
© 2005 Sony Pictures Releasing GmbH
First off, Campbell repeated what he has said in the last three days: "We’re
still working on the script, we’re casting," he said. "We’ve tested actors and
we’re looking at tests to see how they come out, doing all that. As yet, nobody;
we haven’t decided on anybody — and I don’t think anybody is the front-runner. I
think we’re looking at the tests very objectively, and taking our time with it
because the point is that whoever plays it has to do three movies, it’s a huge
commitment."
He added, that there are currently not two or four names in the row, but
rather "eight to ten. What you do is you test and you cut and you look, and you
try to divorce yourself from any prejudice you may have, so that when you see
the test you can just look at it as, ‘There’s an actor, up for Bond’. That’s how
you’ve got to do it."
More interestingly, "Empire" also spoke to Campbell about the nomination of
Paul Haggis as a script polisher. Campbell: "If you read the book, the
relationship between Bond and Vesper was a very complicated one. The idea was to
get some character into her, to make her a very strong girl so she stands up to
Bond; she’s his sort of equal. Certainly, psychologically speaking — and it
needs someone like Paul to pull that off."
So what exactly is expected from Haggis? Campbell: "To bring out genuine
character — and also to bring the humour. Gone will be the awful one-line
clunkers. Hopefully there will be a little bit of wit in this one. I don’t think
it [Bond] needs reinvigorating. I think what it needs is a fresh coat of
paint. I think the last Bond got so out there, with the action and stuff — so
what do you do from there? This will be grittier, more realistic. It’s when he
just earns his double-O stripes, so he’s kind of raw. He’s got an arrogance, he
thinks he can do what he wants to do — he thinks with his heart instead of his
head, so he gets a few of the rough edges knocked off him on the way through the
story. So by the end of it he becomes the Bond that we all know."
So, Bond Begins then? "Sort of, yeah. There’s a little bit of that. But it’s
certainly more gritty and realistic, no doubt about that."
CBn will keep up with all the Campbell interviews to follow. Stay tuned!