10 Movie Passion Projects That Will Never Get Made
3. Quentin Tarantino's Casino Royale
When Daniel Craig came onto the James Bond franchise, it was a definite left-turn for the series. After the Pierce Brosnan films had slowly slid back into the camp silliness and poor puns of the Roger Moore era they decided to return to the first book in Ian Fleming's gentleman spy series, and make it all serious and have only a bit of shagging. It's an idea mostly attributed to the advent of the Bourne films, which started taking spies all serious and stuff, with shaky cam and the like. Or it might be an idea they totally stole from Quentin Tarantino, a life-long fan of James Bond in film and book form who pitched a more serious take on the character years ago. He also wanted it to be an adaptation of Casino Royale, and pitched the idea to Bronsan whilst he was still in the part. Tarantino was so into it that he not only started work on a script which would have kept 007 playing high-stakes baccarat rather than poker but he actually bid on the movie rights.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
