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"Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell has revealed in an interview that James Bond will be going back to his roots in the new film...

Casino Royale - James Bond Begins?
24th February 2005

"Casino Royale", the 21st James Bond film due out in 2006, will be taking 007 back to his roots according to an interview with director Martin Campbell. "Casino Royale" was Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, and it seems the film series will be rewinding back to 007's early career when he first started out in the Double-O section.

If you are unfamiliar with Ian Fleming's 1953 novel, click here for a literary primer.

Bond Begins
Speaking to the New York Daily News, Martin Campbell (who also directed the 1995 Bond film "GoldenEye) revealed the concept behind "Casino Royale" and how the character will be unlike anything we have seen before...

"There are things that will have to be changed from the original novel. The Cold War elements will have to be reconfigured, for example, but 'Casino Royale' will be a grittier, tougher and more realistic Bond movie. We'll be getting away from the huge visual effects kind of films."

"In the new film, Bond is essentially starting out in his career, and has just recently become part of the double-0 section. The idea is to put a bit of the dash back in Bond. By the end of the movie, the character will have been forged into the wiser, harder Bond we know."

"The door is open for Bond, emotionally. "He's in love with Vesper [Lynd] and he sees there's another side to all of this, that life might be far more pleasurable, more gratifying, than being a secret agent. And ultimately that door is slammed in his face, which makes him the tempered steel kind of guy that we know."

On the subject of the graphic torture that Bond suffers at the hands of Le Chiffre, Campbell said "I don't know what we're going to do about that. It ranks up there with the teeth-drilling scene in 'Marathon Man.' I'm looking forward to humanizing Bond a bit. In the novel, Bond smokes 70 cigarettes a day - unbelievable. And he gets a little drunk."

Official Announcement
MGM and Eon Productions officially announced the film earlier this month in a statement that also confirmed Martin Campbell as director and that no casting decisions on the role of James Bond had been made.