Casino Royale (2006 film)/Trivia

The 2006 Film:

 * Ability Over Appearance: Daniel Craig got a bit of controversy when he was cast as James Bond because he looked very different from the past Bonds, being derisively referred to as "James Blond." This of course all went away once the film came out and he got rave reviews. He may have invoked the trope, since he refused to dye his hair black for the role.
 * Cast the Expert:
 * The actor playing the guy that James Bond pursues in the Le Parkour scene at the beginning of Casino Royale is one of the inventors of Le Parkour.
 * When Bond plays poker at the Ocean Club and wins Dimitrios's car, the dealer running the game is an actual professional poker dealer who works at that establishment.
 * Dyeing for Your Art: Daniel Craig buffed up and put on 20 lbs of muscle for the role of Bond.
 * Fake Brit: Eva Green is French.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * Tyrone from Snatch is apparently a poker ace too.
 * The smarmy Bank Guy With Suitcase is none other than Duggan (Tom Chadbon). In the 1967 version, Bernard "Wilf" Cribbins is the cab driver.
 * Irony as She Is Cast: As they discuss their cover, Vesper describes herself as coming from a strict Roman Catholic family. Eva Green herself is an atheist, and was raised in an irreligious family.
 * Technology Marches On: Cell phones, here probably intended to show how gadgets aren't necessary in the modern world. They looked terrific at the time (remember that GPS?) but amusingly, in today's smartphone era they all now look terribly out of date.
 * What Could Have Been: Approximately half the male actors in film were rumored as being considered for the role of Bond. Of note, Henry Cavill was the runner-up, but at age 22, was considered too young.

The 1967 Film:

 * All-Star Cast
 * Breakaway Pop Hit: "The Look of Love", due to severe Mood Whiplash.
 * Creator Killer: A sadly literal instance. The stress of making the film caused producer Charles K. Feldman to develop heart problems, which claimed his life just two years after its release.
 * A less lethal instance happened to all of the film's directors except for John Huston. All of them had fairly distinguished careers prior to working on this film, but none of them had anywhere near the same success afterwards. Probably the worst affected was Val Guest; after word got out that he had taken over as the primary director late in production, he got unfairly blamed for the resulting mess and was reduced to directing Awful British Sex Comedies for the rest of his career.
 * The Danza: Terence Cooper as Coop.
 * Dueling Movies: It was released in the same year as an official Bond, You Only Live Twice.
 * Star-Derailing Role: For Peter Sellers; this started a downward trajectory for his career that lasted eight years before a Career Resurrection.
 * Troubled Production: Not only an obscene number of directors and screenwriters got involved, but the actors fought with them.

The 1954 TV Production

 * Deleted Scene:
 * Playing Against Type: Peter Lorre is not an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain...
 * What Could Have Been: The network apparently commissioned a James Bond TV show based on the strength of this one special. Ian Fleming wrote a few outlines for some episodes and then negotiations fell through, and Fleming used the outlines he had already created and that became the eighth Bond book For Your Eyes Only. Fleming would have his turn in television again when he did some concept work for The Man from U.N.C.L.E..


 * The Poker Game!
 * To get this you have to read several of the original novels, especially Goldfinger. Throughout the series there are references to the game at the Casino Royale including the names and positions of the players. The large black gentleman? Mr. Big from Live and Let Die. The touristy woman to Felix's left? In the book Goldfinger, she and her husband ask Bond to investigate Goldfinger's cheating them.