Timeline - Casino Royale
4th April 2003 - Aishwarya
Rai’s
press agents release rumours of the Bollywood star
clinching a role in Bond 21. Bond 21 casting rumours begin
more than 3 years
before release.
15th April 2003 - Catherine McCormack
of Eon Productions denies
all rumours that the Bond 21
casting
had begun saying, “These are only rumours We
have not approached Aishwarya… we have no shooting
script, not casting agent, not even at date for the film”.
10th October 2003 - Press
rumours claim Bond 21 will shoot in January 2005, with a November
release.
27th October 2003 - The much debated
Jinx spin-off (that was pushing back Bond 21 production
dates) is canned.
22nd March 2004 - Brosnan
speaks about the future of 007, Bond 21 and his future involvement
stating, “The producers have reached an impasse, as
far as I can tell. They don't know what to do. They don't
know how to move on.”
20th April 2004 - MGM’s Chris
McGurk confirms a penciled November 2005 release for James
Bond 21.
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27th May 2004 - Regular Bond scribes
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade begin work on the Bond 21 script.
11th August 2004 - The first draft of
the James Bond 21 script is completed by Purvis and Wade.
30th September 2004 - MGM
announce they are delaying Bond 21 until the Spring
of 2006, now set for release a whole year after the original
penciled date.
14th October 2004 - Pierce Brosnan officially
stands down from the role of Agent 007. The hunt for Bond
#6 is on.
3rd February 2005 - Eon
Productions announce James Bond 21 to be Casino
Royale, helmed by New Zealand director, Martin
Campbell and based on the original Ian
Fleming novel.
24th February 2005 - Martin Campbell talks
Casino Royale, telling the presses that Bond will be back to basics,
grittier and much more Fleming-esque.
29th January 2006 - Sebastien Foucan, the
stunt-man and free-runner is
given a Royale role.
30th January 2006 - Principal photography
on Casino Royale begins with Martin Campbell directing Daniel
Craig in the Embassy shoot-up.
15th February 2006 - Danish star Mads
Mikkelsen is cast
as the villainous Le Chiffre.
16th February 2006 - The casting of Vesper
Lynd and Felix
Leiter is announced. Eva Green is
unveiled as the latest in the long line of Bond girls and
Jeffrey Wright is set
to play Bond’s "brother from Langley".
20th February 2006 - While shooting continues
in the Bahamas, Aston
Martin unveil concept designs for the new DBS - Bond’s
new ride in Casino Royale.
15th March 2006 - The cast and crew give
their first mid-production press release. On the sunny shores
of the Bahamas, Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Caterina Murino give
their first press release and photoshoot.
5th April 2006 - The second unit wraps
shooting the massive construction site case in the Bahamas.
6th April 2006 - Martin Campbell rolls
cameras on the intensive Poker tournament at Barrandov Studios.
2nd May 2006 - Sony
Pictures release
teaser trailers for James Bond 21.
3th May 2006 - The production begins
shooting at Prague International Airport (doubling for
Miami
International) with a giant Airbus A340-600, posing as
the new Skyways super-jet.
9th May 2006 - The crew shoot Daniel
Craig and Simon Abkarian at the Ministry of Transport
in
Prague. The Ministry doubles for the "Body World"
exhibition where Abkarian’s character, Dimitrios,
makes a drop to the latest in the line of terrorists.
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12th May 2006 - The first unit set up at
a disused military hospital in Plana. Here they shoot much of Bond’s
recuperation sequence.
28th May 2006 - The first unit travel
to Lake Como in Italy - a location already made familiar
by George Lucas’ blockbuster "Star Wars Episode
II".
30th May 2006 - The garden scenes of Bond’s
recovery are captured on the shores of Lake Como.
3rd June 2006 - The second unit shoot
at UK’s Dunsford Park aerodrome. Doubling for the Miami
airport runway, Dunsford is home to calculated crashes, explosions
and
stunts as the unit films one of the big action sets of the picture.
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5th June 2006 - Daniel
Craig and the first unit roll cameras on the Venice sequence
at the famous St. Mark’s square.
5th June 2006 - The production holds
a press day at their Venice based location shoot. Bond and
his new leading lady pose for photographs.
8th June 2006 - Daniel and Eva shoot
the yachting scenes in the Grand Canal.
5th July 2006 - The Royale second
unit set up at Black Park, just outside of Pinewood, to
shoot scenes of Le Chiffre’s meet with Obanno at
the beginning of the film. They shoot for two days.
26 July 2006 - Chris Cornell of
Audioslave fame is announced
as Casino Royale’s theme
artist.
30 July 2006 - The
007 Stage is swamped in flames after an oxyacetylene
gas canister exploded. The second unit had completed
shooting in Pinewood’s
wet-tank just days before the fire.
7th September 2006 - A full
theatrical trailer for Casino Royale is released to cinemas world wide.
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4th November 2006 - Press agencies are
quick on the ball and the
first of many positive reviews are released.
13th November 2006 - David
Arnold’s
Casino Royale soundtrack is released on CD. However, the compilation
lacks the theme "You Know My Name" performed by
Chris Cornell.
14th November 2006 - Casino Royale’s
world premiere is held at Leicester Square and celebrates with
red carpet guests and an appearance from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
II.
11th February 2007 - Eva Green and Daniel
Craig attend the BAFTA awards, where Casino Royale picked up
nine
nominations and Eva Green received the "Rising Star"
award for her Bond girl role.
13th March 2007 - Casino Royale is released
on "Collectors Edition" two-disc DVD (fullscreen and widescreen
versions) and Blu-Ray in the USA, entering the DVD charts at #1
and selling over 100,00 copies on the high-def format in the
first
week.
19th March 2007 - Casino Royale is released
on "Collectors Edition" two-disc DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK.
24th April 2007 - Casino Royale
enters
the all-time UK box office top 10 by hauling £55.5m at the national
box-office.
26th May 2007 - The Casino Royale stunt team
scooped
two Taurus awards for Best High Work and Best Stunt Coordination
and/or
2nd
Unit Direction.
15th September 2007 - Selling over 2.3
million copies in the first half of 2007, the Casino Royale tops
the first ever UK culture chart.
17th September 2007 - A single-disc
edition of Casino Royale with no special features is released in the
UK by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
29th September 2007 - At the first
ever National Movie Awards in the UK, Casino Royale won
best action and adventure movie,
and
the James Bond franchise also won the special recognition award
at the event.