Casino Royale rebooted Bond by making him lose at cards
The 2006 Casino Royale threw out decades of gadgets and continuity to show a rookie 007 who could be outplayed, poisoned and betrayed. Built around a poker tournament in Montenegro and mostly practical stunts, it made Daniel Craig's Bond the biggest earner in the series until Skyfall.
After Die Another Day in 2002, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson felt the series had drifted into fantasy, and Broccoli thought its frivolity sat badly after the 9/11 attacks. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade began a script in March 2004 aimed at recapturing Ian Fleming's 1953 novel. They first wrote it for Pierce Brosnan, then realised the story suited a younger man starting out, and talks with Brosnan collapsed. Daniel Craig's casting, announced in October 2005, drew criticism at first.
Martin Campbell, who had directed GoldenEye, came aboard in February 2005 and brought in Paul Haggis for a rewrite. Haggis reshaped the climax so that Vesper Lynd dies inside a sinking Venetian building, with Bond torn between wanting to kill her and trying to save her. The writers replaced the novel's Soviet villains with Le Chiffre, a banker who finances terrorism, and moved the casino from northern France to Montenegro. Eon, worried it had leaned too hard on computer effects, insisted on doing stunts physically.
In the story, Le Chiffre loses a client's money when Bond foils a plot against an aircraft maker whose shares he had bet against. To recover it he stages a Texas hold 'em game with a $10 million buy-in. MI6 enters Bond, paired with Treasury official Vesper Lynd. Bond loses his stake, is bankrolled by the CIA's Felix Leiter, survives a poisoned drink and wins, before Vesper's divided loyalties unravel in Venice.
The rights had a strange path: Sony traded them to MGM for Spider-Man, and Eon acquired them in 1999; Sony then led the group that bought MGM, so the film became the first Bond released under the Columbia Pictures banner. It premiered in London on 14 November 2006, won wide praise for Craig, and grossed over $606 million worldwide. Quantum of Solace followed in 2008.
Source: Casino Royale (2006 film)
