Director Martin Campbell explains the James Bond / Vesper Lynd relationship in Casino Royale

Casino Royale, which begins filming in January with newly named Bond Daniel Craig, will be the first of the 007 movies to reveal the hero's origins, director Martin Campbell told USA Today.

"We're going toward a much more realistic Bond, much more From Russia with Love than we've had in the past," says Martin, who also directed 1995's GoldenEye with former Bond Pierce Brosnan.

Campbell's Legend of Zorro opens Friday, and he says he's ready to trade swords for spies.

Casino Royale was first made in 1967 as a spoof of spy movies, with David Niven as Bond. Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale was set during the Cold War and focused on a gambler named Le Chiffre who tries to reclaim a fortune he lost for SMERSH, the Communist secret enforcement unit.

"He has to mount a card game in order to win the money back. Bond is sent in to make sure he doesn't win," Campbell says. The 2006 version of Casino Royale eliminates the Cold War setting.

Bond is teamed with female agent Vesper Lynd, who later helps him recover after he is brutally tortured.

"She's the one who forges him into the Bond that we all know and love," Campbell says. "He certainly falls in love with her, and it does change him forever. It's a genuinely deeper relationship. The film deals much more on a personal level with Bond."

The reason the hero treats subsequent love interests as one-night stands also will be revealed.

"He talks about how it's too boring to have a relationship," Campbell says. "You meet, and it's all exciting, then it starts to fade, and you go through the uncomfortable part of having to get rid of the girl, etc. It's a very interesting observation, given his sort of misogynistic views."

The film also will feature a lot of "embryonic stuff" about why Bond prefers his martini "shaken, not stirred," and why he favors the Aston Martin sports car.

But there will be no gadget-master Q. The story is trying to avoid over-the-top weaponry.

The production will move among the Bahamas, Prague, Italy and London, says Campbell, now going over action sequences with Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis.

Who will play Vesper?

Says Campbell: "We were so wrapped up getting Bond, that's what we have to do now."

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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