Casino Royale Why They Rebooted 007

When the James Bond film series celebrated its fortieth anniversary back in 2002 fans were promised a film that featured nods to many o the previous nineteen films that had started with “Dr No” back in 1962.

However, “Die Another Day” was poorly received by fans despite doing well at the box office. The story contained some elements of Ian Fleming’s novel “Moonraker”, which although it had previously been filmed had done away with much of Fleming’s material. And the plot was a rather a mishmash, although not completely without merit.

But even the producers felt they had gone over the top by including a car that become invisible at the touch of a button, featured a Korean villain who had undergone DNA replacement therapy that changed his appearance entirely so that he looked like a westerner, and a henchman whose face was peppered with diamond splinters after a previous confrontation with 007; credibility was stretched just too far.

Although the producers confirmed that Pierce Brosnan would be returning in the role of James Bond something seems to have happened along the way; Brosnan was unceremoniously dumped as EON Productions decided to take the series in a completely different direction and reboot the series and take it back to basics.

This decision was also possibly influenced by 9/11, after which the world suddenly became a much more serious place to live, with multiple theatres of war taking over from the post-Cold War era that James Bond had been inhabiting of late.

EON decided that for Bond 21 they would film the one story they had not yet used; the rights to “Casino Royale” had been sold separately by Ian Fleming and until legal action with Sony brought things to a head, EON could not Ian Fleming’s first book.

Since the new film demanded a reboot of 007, a new actor had to be found, and it was towards the end of 2005 that Daniel Craig was unveiled in the role. An unlikely 007, as his hair is blond, the choice of Craig was attacked by many fans and during filming he was often attacked by the British tabloids.

However, he confounded his critics when “Casino Royale” was finally released as it was the best James Bond film for many years and while Pierce Brosnan had always been something of a “Roger Moore lite” due to the scripts he was handed, Craig stamped his own mark on Bond completely; both critics and cinema goers were won over.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Bond franchise and while the film makers have said that some of the more traditional Bond elements would return, such as more humour, nothing has been said about any other nods to the past half century of Bond films. While the teaser trailer seems to demonstrate more of the serious nature of Daniel Craig’s portrayal of James Bond, with no humour at all, we must wait until October to see the finished film in all its glory.