James Bond: Why Casino Royale Rebooted The 007 Franchise

4. The Influence Of Bourne

The same year as Die Another Day’s release, the first of the Jason Bourne movies were also shown to audiences worldwide and to great success. It revolutionised the way in which action movies were presented through both filmmaking and narrative. Utilising very quick cuts in order to create fast paced fight scenes in a somewhat grounded tone which didn’t rely on gadgets or submarine cars.

There were no supervillains with lairs built inside volcanoes but there were shootouts and car chases to satisfy the viewer in addition to a more pragmatic protagonist. Brosnan himself attributed the shifting identity of the action flick as a reason for his departure as Bond stating that ‘[He] knew there had been a seismic shift [with films like the Bourne Identity]’ in an interview with The Rake. As a result, changing the identity of James Bond was a completely reasonable idea.

Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, Casino Royale maintained a very similar plotline to its source material albeit some changes in order to accommodate for a movie almost two and a half hours long: the longest James Bond movie to date. Changes were also made for the movie to be set in the present day such as different settings and more suitable circumstances for the character’s motivations.

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