20 Things You Didn’t Know About Casino Royale (2006)
8. Going Back To Basics
After the CGI-heavy Die Another Day, the filmmakers consciously aimed to make Casino Royale as real as possible.
Daniel Craig reported that the only CGI featured in the film was to erase safety wires (particularly during the parkour chase through the construction site) and to integrate the Venetian palazzo into the actual City of Lovers during the finale.
Another big exception to the use of CGI was the titles sequence by Daniel Kleinman. Because James Bond becomes Double-0 Seven at the start of the film, but is not yet the character that audiences are familiar with, and falls in love with Vesper, Kleinman consciously decided not to use scantily-clad ladies in the titles.
Instead, he was inspired by the first edition cover of Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel, which featured nine hearts, eight of which were dripping blood. Kleinman used the playing card motif to mirror various aspects of Bond’s world, such as a club representing a puff of smoke from a recently-fired gun and hearts falling out of broken arteries.
The human silhouettes shown in the engrossing sequence were digitalised footage of Daniel Craig and stuntmen, which was filmed using the Inferno visual effects system at Framestore Limited in London.