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Casino Royale, first published in 1953 is the first James Bond novel by author Ian Fleming. It was adapted into a 1954 television movie and later a 1967 film spoof.
In February 2005, EON Productions announced that James Bond 21, due for release in 2006, would be an adaptation of Casino Royale.
History
In 1954 CBS paid Ian Fleming a mere $1000 US dollars to adapt Casino Royale into a one hour television adventure as part of their Climax! series (see below). Additionally, CBS in the late 50's made an offer to Fleming to write 32 episodes over a two year period for a telvision show based on the James Bond character. While nothing ever came of this, it is possible that this offer was influential in the creation of Thunderball, which was orginally conceived as the first episode of a television series or a full-length feature film.
In 1955 Ian Fleming sold the film rights of Casino Royale to producers Michael Garrison (creator of The Wild Wild West) and Gregory Ratoff for $6000. Ratoff eventually tried to sell the idea of a James Bond series to 20th Century Fox but was turned down. After Ratoff's death, his widow in conjunction with Michael Garrison sold the film rights to producer Charles K. Feldman. With the success of the official James Bond film series, Feldman went to producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman with a proposition to produce a serious film version starring Sean Connery as agent 007, but was turned down. Coming off the success of the comedy Whats New, Pussycat?, Feldman decided the best way to profit from the film rights was to make a spoof. Feldman's spoof was produced and released in 1967 by Columbia Pictures, which became a subsidiary of Sony in 1989. In the 1990's, Sony had apparently decided to make a serious adaptation of Casino Royale, but these plans, in addition to Kevin McClory's plans for a second Thunderball (see: Never Say Never Again) remake were laid to rest when Sony settled an ongoing suit with MGM in 1999 giving up any rights to the James Bond character. Later in 1999, MGM paid Sony $10 million for the rights to Casino Royale. The film rights to Never Say Never Again were acquired by MGM from Sony in 1997.
Since MGM's acquisition of the film rights to Casino Royale there has been speculation that an official version would be produced. At one point, Die Another Day was rumored to be an adaptation of Fleming's novel. In 2005 EON Productions announced that their next James Bond adventure would in fact be Casino Royale.
The novel
Rare 1969 reprint by Pan Books. The first paperback edition of Casino Royale in the United States was retitled by publisher American Popular Library in 1955. Fleming's suggestions for the new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded in favor of You Asked For It. The novel was subtitled "[Casino Royale]" and actually made reference to secret agent 007 as "Jimmy Bond" on the back cover. In 1960 the original title, Casino Royale replaced You Asked For It in the United States.
When the book came to the UK in paperback form in 1955, readers were given their first glimpse of secret agent James Bond on the book jacket. Oddly, the character of Bond was based off a photograph of American Richard Conte. Conte is best known for various roles in films including Oceans Eleven (1960) and The Godfather.
Plot summary
Le Chiffre, "the cipher", is a Communist agent for the Soviet assassination bureau SMERSH, running a baccarat game at a French casino to raise needed operational fundsnamely, to recover SMERSH's money that he (Le Chiffre) lost in a failed attempt to establish a chain of brothels. Expert baccarat player James Bond (British secret agent 007; licenced to kill), is assigned to beat Le Chiffre, in the hope that the Communist agent's gambling debts will provoke SMERSH's killing him. Moreover, Bond must contend with the emotionally turbulent Vesper Lynd (his latest romance; holding a terrible secret), and endure torture at Le Chiffre's hand.
Comic strip adaptation
Casino Royale was the first James Bond novel to be adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper, and syndicated worldwide. It ran from July 7 to December 13, 1958, and was written by Anthony Hern and illustrated by John McLusky; the strip was reprinted by Titan Books in the early 1990s; a new reprint by Titan is planned for publication in 2005.
ISBNs
Trivia
- Jonathan Cape, the publishers of the first British edition, would publish the first hardcover editions of every Bond novel (with the exception of novelizations) until No Deals, Mr. Bond in 1987.
The 1954 television episode
Casino Royale was made into an episode of the CBS television program Climax! during it's first season. The episode aired on October 21, 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as American secret agent Jimmy Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, and was made before EON acquired the Bond film rights. When MGM eventually obtained the rights to the 1967 film version of Casino Royale, it also received the rights to this television film.
Two versions of the episodes currently exist; a three-act version and a four-act version. The fourth act features the infamous scene in which Peter Lorre, killed in Act 3, stands and walks off camera. The television episode was added as a bonus feature on the DVD of the 1967 film Casino Royale, the version ends with Act 3, whereas the proposed DVD release of the full version has been indefinitely delayed.
Cast and characters
- James 'Jimmy' Bond - Barry Nelson
- Le Chiffre - Peter Lorre
- Clarence Leiter - Michael Pate — (see Felix Leiter)
- Chef DePartre - Eugene Borden
- Valerie Mathis - Linda Christian
- Croupier - Jean Del Val
- Zolto - Kurt Katch
- Basil - Gene Roth
The 1967 film
A film version of Casino Royale, made in 1967, features Orson Welles, as Le Chiffre, battling James Bond in the guises of: Sir James Bond, David Niven, and six other James BondsTerence Cooper (named Coop), Woody Allen (Bond's nephew Jimmy Bond), Joanna Pettet (Mata Bond, illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond), and Peter Sellers (card-sharp Evelyn Tremble impersonating Bond at Casino Royale).
The movie is very different from the book, and the other James Bond films, in that it is a broad spoof of the genre, the makers having decided they couldn't compete with the EON series on its own ground. The SellersWelles segment is the only portion based upon the novel.
Cast and characters
Crew
- Directed by: John Huston, Val Guest, Kenneth Hughes, Joseph McGrath, and Robert Parrish. Guest was offered the unique title of "Co-ordinating Director" but declined.
- Produced by: Charles K. Feldman, Jerry Bresler, John Dark
- Suggested by the novel by: Ian Fleming
- Screenplay by: Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers
- Original music by: Burt Bacharach
- John Barry also contributed to the song "Born Free", but was uncredited
The 2006 film
- Main article: Casino Royale (2006 film)
In February 2005, EON Productions announced that a new version of Casino Royale would be released in 2006 directed by GoldenEye director Martin Campbell. An actor has yet to be chosen that will take over as James Bond. David Arnold will be composing the film's soundtrack, as he has done for the last three Bond films.
Other versions
- A fan-made rendition of Casino Royale appeared on fan film sites somewhere around 2003.
- A Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Royale", involves crewmembers beaming down to a planet where they discover a holographic recreation of "a second-rate novel" about a hotel and casino called The Royale, and must respond to the simulation based on clues in the book. There are no specific similarities to the Fleming story, although there has been speculation it might have inspired the setting.
Trivia
- According to the biography Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, by Todd McCarthy, the director of His Girl Friday considered filming a version of Casino Royale in 1962, possibly starring Cary Grant as James Bond, but, ultimately, chose not to. There is a webpage (http://www.hmss.com/films/carygrant007/) that speculates on what a Howard Hawks Bond film might have been like.
- In 2004, American Quentin Tarantino supposedly went to EON Productions attempting to lobby for a "proper" film adaptation of Fleming's novel, based on a screenplay he had written starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. It's assumed this proposition was declined by EON.
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