Casino Royale: 'Not Your Average Bond Film'

While the world premiere of Casino Royale is still a few days away, early reviews of the 21st James Bond film are already labeling it as ‘not your average Bond film’ – reports the BBC.

Comparing Daniel Craig to Sir Sean Connery, a popular choice by fans as the best Bond actor, seems to be the path some reviews are taking.

‘He manages to exude not only danger and unpredictability and wit–but also, and this is a first, some vulnerability.’ – The Telegraph

Craig ‘steps with full assuredness into Sean Connery’s old handmade shoes,’ says the Daily Telegraph. ‘It’s Bond, but not as we’ve known it. The guns and action are there… the girls are certainly there… but the clonking double entendres of the old days are gone–in their place is a much more teasing, smartly written prospect.’

The Times was equally as favourable with its review, saying: ‘Craig is up there with the best–he combines Sean Connery’s athleticism and cocksure swagger with Timothy Dalton’s thrilling undercurrent of stone-cold cruelty.’

The rule book of the James Bond series has been ‘well and truly torn up.’ – The Mirror

Craig delivers ‘a far more plausible Bond than many of his predecessors. But his main asset quickly becomes evident. He can act.’

Another critic called Casino Royale ‘the best Bond film since GoldenEye,’ director Martin Campbell’s first 007 adventure. ‘From the start you can tell this isn’t your average Bond film.’

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Casino Royale Shows Bond 'As A Human Being'

The Los Angeles Times reports that Casino Royale brings something new to the series with a ‘bloodied Bond’ and one that ‘sometimes thinks with his heart instead of his head.’ In short, a human being…

‘We haven’t seen Bond bloodied before,’ says director Martin Campbell. ‘But this is a tougher movie. When he fights, he bleeds and, emotionally, he can also get wounded. An idea that comes straight from the book is he finds some of the violence in his world ugly. He’s not comfortable with messy, brutal killings. We show Bond as a human being, who sometimes thinks with his heart instead of his head. He’s vulnerable, and he can be that way without being a wuss.’

The reason why? Ian Fleming. ‘By virtue of the book, this film is more realistic and down to earth than any Bond movie we’ve seen in years,’ says Campbell.

A bloodied and wounded James Bond at times meant alot of training for Daniel Craig. ‘I did three months of solid training before shooting started,’ he says. ‘I wanted to make sure that if the shirt came off, I’d look like I could hurt somebody. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, he’s got a good body.’

‘I don’t think anyone could have come in [to the role] without being heavily criticized,’ continues Craig. ‘Or at least heavily analyzed… We are living in that world now, where everything can be scrutinized.’

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Details On Casino Royale's Irish 15A Certificate

The Times reports on a small record Casino Royale has already broken before it is released: the first Irish 15A certificate for a James Bond film.

Daniel Craig’s debut as 007 is suitable only for those 15 years of age and older, unless accompanied by an adult, according to the Irish censor. It is the first Bond film in the series to receive the specific certifcate: previous Brosnan Bond films were rated 12A.

‘This would not be a 12A to us because of the violence,’ said John Kelleher, the Irish film censor. ‘This is a 15A and I think parents will agree. There is a particularly strong scene; there are several. And our classification is based on the totality of the film, not on one scene. It’s not saying that kids can’t see it but the person who can decide that is the parent. The 15A as opposed to the 12A is a very strong signal that this contains strong violence.’

However, both Sony and cinema managers aren’t worried that the higher certificate will limit the success of Casino Royale.

‘John (Kelleher) is using the 15A to advise people he feels the content is particularly suitable to a certain group and not to another. We are happy with that,’ said Peter Taylor, managing director of Sony Pictures.

Fran McCormick, manager of the Dara cinema in Naas said: ‘They’re trying to create a new format with this Bond, more tough… kids can go in and see it with their parents or guardians. It hasn’t been given a 16 certificate which would be strictly that age and no lower.’

It was previously announced that Casino Royale had received a 12A certificate from the BBFC, although some edits (in the torture sequence specifcally) had to occur for the film to get the rating.

‘If they want to reinstate the material we thought they should remove (for a DVD release), it would get a 15,’ said a BBFC spokesperson.

Click here to read the entire Casino Royale article on The Times.

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Casino Royale TV Spots #6 & #7 Released

Two more TV spots for Casino Royale have been released online (#6 and #7.)

The sixth spot for the 21st official James Bond film contains scenes from the Miami sequence, dialogue between Bond and M, as well as Bond and Vesper Lynd. It also includes the relatively new shot of Le Chiffre’s cards being thrown right at the camera.

The seventh, and newest TV spot for Casino Royale contains even more scenes from Daniel Kleinman’s main title sequence (which was first viewed in the fifth TV spot for the film.)

Click here to watch Casino Royale TV Spot #6.

Click here to watch Casino Royale TV Spot #7.

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Gary Powell And His Stuntmen 'Beat The Fear' For Casino Royale

When it comes to discussing scenes from Die Another Day that James Bond fans didn’t care for, the CGI wave seems to almost always appear on the list. But Casino Royale has moved away from the computer effects and back into the stunts with coordinator Gary Powell and his crew. The Times reports…

Gary Powell, stunt coordinator on the newest 007 film, is no stranger to the Bond series. He has previously worked on such films as GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough, having performed the barrel roll with the Q Boat during the Thames chase of Pierce Brosnan’s third film.

‘This is one of the most physical Bonds we’ve had, and Daniel does do a lot of his own stuff,’ says Powell of Casino Royale. ‘He wants to do all his own stuff. I have to stop him at certain levels because of the risk factor. He’s got no ego at all, which is fantastic for me. The problem comes when you get an actor who wants to do all his own stunts, but can’t.’

Powell labels CGI, which reached a peak in the Bond series with Die Another Day, ‘boring.’ He says: ‘Nowadays, the audience are so clever. They know when it’s visual effects, they know when it’s real… when you go back to Buster Keaton, doing all those car chases, or Harold Lloyd, they were literally just missing each other. That’s when people go, “Did you see that?” That’s what I sort of want to get back to.’

‘For us, it’s beating the fear,’ says Powell. ‘You get frightened of something, you go in there and you beat it. It’s a nice feeling.’

Click here to read the entire article on Gary Powell and Casino Royale.

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Daniel Craig 'Knuckles Down' For Casino Royale

With the world premiere of Casino Royale just days away now, the Bond world has seen a constant inflow of new articles regarding Daniel Craig’s taking on the role of James Bond. The Times reports that he is easing into the role of 007…

‘I’d be lying to you if I said I ignored it all,’ says Craig when asked about the harsh criticism he received early on after being announced as Bond #6. ‘And it’s that horrible thing with the internet, it’s like the drug we’ve got in the front room. I mean, we might use it for sensible things some of the time, but there’s always an hour in our lives where we just end up looking at s–t.’

‘And I’ve got two choices. I can either buckle under it or knuckle down, and, hopefully, the latter has happened. I just went “OK, let’s get on with it.” And at the end of the day I’ve given 100 per cent on this, I’ve given everything I could. And I’ll present it and if people don’t like it, stuff ’em. I’m not being rude, I’m just saying that I’ve given it my best shot.’

Praise from director Martin Campbell is no new thing as well. Comparing him with the first official Bond actor. He is good-looking, but he’s more unconventional, tougher and darker. This Bond had to be darker and Daniel can convey that, rather like Sean Connery. Connery had that presence on the screen of someone who could definitely take care of himself. Daniel has that, too.’

Click here to read the entire article on Casino Royale.

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Mads Mikkelsen On Casino Royale's Action, Poker, & More

As posted on the CBn forums, an article from Live Night and Day interviewed Casino Royale‘s Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the villainous Le Chiffre in the film. The action scenes with Daniel Craig playing poker were just a few of the discussion points…

‘There are worse things to wake up to than the thought of beating the crap out of Daniel Craig,’ jokes Mikkelsen. ‘Then you arrive on set, see Daniel’s face and realise that he’s fully pumped up for a fight. Not only is he a very hard puncher, he’s also completely focused.’

‘What made our scenes particularly severe was that a lot of the fighting was completely improvised,’ he says. Also, those scenes were shot continuously in one take. That meant we had to shoot some of them 20 times. That’s 20 times I had to take on Daniel Craig.’

‘To be honest, I’m not a great fighter. I’d sooner run away. But there’s nowhere to run when you’re shooting a Bond film. You need to get on with it and make it look good. And if my scraps with Daniel look real on screen, that’s because they were real when we were filming them.’

The poker scenes in the 21st James Bond film were one of the highlights for Mikkelsen. ‘We researched the casino scene fairly intensively, and the whole cast became pretty good at poker as a result,’ he says. ‘By the end of the film I’d like to think I got so good that I wiped the floor with everybody–including Daniel. He might get the better of me in the fight scenes, but I definitely got the better of him at poker.’

And what about actually training for the role in Casino Royale? ‘The far side of gruelling,’ quips Mikkelsen.

Click here to read the entire Live Night and Day article on Casino Royale.

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Casino Royale: 'Real' Returns To The Bond Series

***Warning***: Possible plot spoilers.

As posted on the CBn forums, an article from Live Night and Day has recently been released. Covering the Miami sequence and other action scenes, it seems that Casino Royale is bringing ‘real’ back to the James Bond series…

‘Daniel [Craig] is extremely fit and strong–and he’s 100 per cent up for it. In the construction site scene [above] we had him 90ft up on eight-inch girders. He had no problem with that,’ says Gary Powell, stunt co-ordinator on Casino Royale.

‘Audiences are getting bored with computer graphics,’ says Powell. ‘There’s so much computer work in action films, you may as well be watching Shrek. We use [special effects] to top up, but really as little as possible.’

Powell explains that they had plenty of spares on hand when it came to the action scenes with the cars: ‘In one sequence Bond’s Aston Martin gets rolled after a chase with a Jaguar. We had four Astons and four Jaguars on hand. If something went wrong, we didn’t waste time repairing it. We just kept the cameras rolling.’

When it came to the Miami sequence between Bond and Carlos, there were three tankers on hand for the scene. ‘One for basic driving, another fitted with a huge counterweight on one side to enable it to drive on two wheels, and a third that has a driving position hidden so it looks like the principal actor is driving when in fact it is a stuntman.’

Close calls have been associated with the Bond series before, and Casino Royale was no different. ‘Around 3.30am [for the Miami sequence], the inevitable finally happened: the vehicles get too close and Bang! There was an almighty crash. A front wheel on the tanker blew and its axle buckled. The ambulance and fire teams, who are on constant call, leapt into action. But the stuntman driver got out of the cab grinning.’

Sebastien Foucan, who plays Mollaka in a standout freerunning scene in the film sums it up perfectly: ‘There were security systems in place but all the action is real. There was no point pretending the chase across the girders wasn’t going to be dangerous–it was.’

Click here to read the entire Live Night and Day article on Casino Royale.

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Casino Royale's First Public Screening On 14 November

Official ‘Casino Royale’ Teaser Poster

The CTBF originally announced details on the royal world premiere of Casino Royale in late July and later updated with further information about the attendance of Her Majesty The Queen. Now, details have been revealed on the first public screening of the 21st James Bond film…

FIRST PUBLIC SCREENING OF CASINO ROYALE

Tuesday 14th November 2006, 11:30pm, Odeon Leicester Square

It’s one of the most anticipated films of the year and you could be among the first to see Daniel Craig make his debut as 007.

The Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF) is pleased to announce an exclusive late night screening of this year’s chosen Royal Film Performance – the latest Bond blockbuster, Casino Royale.

This first public screening will take place shortly after the star-studded, World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, which will be attended by HM The Queen.

Minutes after the stars have left their seats at the Odeon Leicester Square you can take your place for this special preview screening at 11.30pm on Tuesday 14th November.

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this exciting event.

HOW TO BOOK:

Telephone Odeon: 0871 22 44 007 and ask the Box Office for the charity screening on the 14th November at 11:30pm.

You can also book your tickets online at: www.odeon.co.uk

Ticket information

• Royal Circle £25
• Rear Circle £20
• Stalls £15

CTBF

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Casino Royale TV Spot #5 Airs (Spoilers)

***Warning***: Plot spoiler included

UPDATE: Video now online here.

Coming one right after another it seems, the fifth TV spot for Casino Royale, the 21st official James Bond film, has aired on US television and it looks to be one of the best thus far.

This new Casino Royale TV spot contains several shots from Daniel Kleinman’s main title sequence (‘retro’ seems to be the key word) to open the film as well as the demise of one of the characters in the film.

While the video has not been posted on any media sites yet, several photographs from the 30-second commercial have made their way online and can be viewed here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

Want to discuss your thoughts on the main title sequence of the film? Add your thoughts here on the CBn Forums.

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