25 Mind-Blowing James Bond Facts You Need To Know
3. There Are THREE Casino Royale Films
In 1967, Famous Artist Productions released an unofficial Bond parody called Casino Royale. James Bond was played by Ian Fleming's first choice for the role, David Niven. The story revolves around Bond coming out of retirement to face the terrorist organisation, SMERSH.
Because SMERSH is a silly name, viewers assumed it was a parody of the evil organisation that Bond usually faces, SPECTRE. However, SMERSH is what the criminal organisation is called in the novels. It is derived from the Russian "Smiert Spionam", which means "Death to Spies".
The film had a stellar cast including Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and Ursula Andress. Despite the movie having five directors including Oscar-winner, John Huston, Casino Royale was terrible and failed to make a profit.
A lot of people don't know that there is ANOTHER Casino Royale adaption. It was a TV movie released eight years before Dr. No. This 58-minute long film had Barry Nelson playing Bond. Nelson is best-known for playing the hotel manager in the 1980 horror masterpiece, The Shining.
In this version, Peter Lorre plays the villain, Le Chiffre. Lorre is famous for his roles as Ugarte in Casablanca, Hans in M, and Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. This adaptation was met with very poor reviews and Ian Fleming was only paid $1,000 for the film rights.