20 Things You Didn’t Know About Casino Royale (2006)
7. “Made You Feel It, Did He?”
The black and white pre-credits sequence of Casino Royale is often believed to symbolise how James Bond only starts to become the character that audiences are familiar with after he is appointed as Double-0 Seven.
However, Phil Méheux developed the idea to surprise audiences. He wanted to recall such classic black and white 1960s films as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) [he also developed the idea of Vesper wearing a red dress so that Bond can follow her through Venice from Don't Look Now (1973)].
The finished sequence used 6,000 feet of Eastman Double-X 5222 black and white film, equating to one hour and six minutes of footage shot at twenty-four frames per second.
The pre-credits sequence was initially longer, depicting Dryden’s (Malcolm Sinclair’s) contact, Fisher (Darwin Shaw, credited as Daud Shah) at a cricket match in Lahore, Pakistan realising that he is being observed by James Bond. After a short chase, the sequence would have played out as seen in the final film with the brutal fight set inside the cricket pavilion. The additional scenes were shot, but were cut from the film due to time and pacing reasons.