Director Martin Campbell talks about Casino Royale, Daniel Craig and Fleming`s Bond

A darker, tougher James Bond is about to be unveiled to the world, and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell is convinced that Daniel Craig will win over a new generation of fans with a stunning performance as 007 - reports Star-E.

Based on Ian Fleming’s very first book to feature the British spy, Casino Royale has been given a contemporary makeover to bring it up to date by Bond stalwarts Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash).

The story outlines Bond’s first ever mission after earning his licence to kill as his anxious bosses fret over whether he’s up to the job of tracking down the bag man who launders money for terrorist organisations. We also see how Bond loses his heart to the beautiful Vesper Lynd (played by Eva Green).

“The love story is a crucial part of the film,” says Campbell. “With Eva’s character, Vesper Lynd, he meets someone who changes his life, she gets to him in a way that no woman ever has because he falls in love with her.”

Campbell was heavily involved in the process which cast Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Munich) as the new Bond.

“We all had to agree on who would be Bond – Barbara (Broccoli, producer) Michael (Wilson, producer), all of us,” he explains. “And we saw a lot of people, as you can imagine.

“There was endless speculation about it but we had to go through everyone and we tested a lot of people, and finally it came back to Daniel. We knew he was the right man for the job; it was as simple as that.”

The key was casting an actor who would be closer to the Bond that Fleming created in his novels – not the highly stylised version he had become over the course of 20 films (Casino Royale is the 21st).

“He certainly fitted the book, and the more realistic approach much better than anybody else. This Bond had to be darker, and Daniel can convey that. He has that dark quality – that presence on the screen of someone who could definitely take care of himself.”

Campbell, who directed Pierce Brosnan in his first outing as 007, in GoldenEye back in 1995, believes the concept needed reinvigorating.

“You know, the last one took tons of money but as Barbara and Michael said, ‘How long can we go on like this?’ How long could you go on with that ‘man taking over the world’ scenario?”

He also believes that the cynics who have sniped at Craig’s casting as Bond will soon be eating their words.

“He turned out to be very good indeed,” Campbell says. “I mean, to begin with, he buffed up and he trained and he looked great. But I think there was a little bit of a learning curve in the way you do action, the way you shoot action, the way it’s done. But once he was in the rhythm he was great. ”

Campbell, 65, was born in New Zealand and moved to the UK to work as a cameraman. He cut his directorial teeth on British films like Eskimo Nell and Three For All in the early 70s before working on TV serials like The Professionals, Minder and The Edge of Darkness.

By the 1990s Campbell was making his way into Hollywood, at first directing television shows (Homicide: Life on the Streets) and then features. He followed GoldenEye with The Mask of Zorro and, more recently, the sequel The Legend of Zorro. His other films include Vertical Limit and Beyond Borders.

The interview on the right was conducted when Campbell took time out from editing Casino Royale in London.

Q: You had a new Bond with GoldenEye (1995) and you’ve got a new Bond, Daniel Craig, with Casino Royale. What was it like this time?

Well it was a different concept in that GoldenEye was very much a traditional Bond, I think. It was a new actor playing Bond but nevertheless the story was very much along the normal lines, except that in that story 006 was the bad guy, but you still had the bad guys trying to destroy the world, all the usual scenarios, whereas this is very much more down to earth. So no more exploding control rooms, no more incredulous action sequences.

Q: But you were credited with reinvigorating Bond back in 1995. What is it with you and new Bonds?

Well, it’s only my second time! With GoldenEye it was an eight-year gap between that and Licence to Kill. Pierce was just perfect for it. And the public were starved of Bond. There was the gap because of a legal problem. So a long time had passed and everyone liked Pierce and I think the audience was looking forward to another Bond.

Q: What did you like about Daniel?

Well, for a start, he’s obviously a very, very good actor. And another reason is that he fitted the concept we had and he certainly fitted the book and the more realistic approach much better than anybody else. Casino Royale is a rather interesting book. It’s his (Ian Fleming) first book, written in 1953 and it was set in the Cold War with Smersh involved – Fleming’s version of the KGB. It was a very realistic book, too. It doesn’t feature outrageous situations, outrageous action and Bond is very real, too. He is not the tuxedo wearing, womanising master spy that we have been given in the movies.

Q: So he’s not the sophisticate we know now?

No, he’s not, and basically he has just been given his first task having been given his 007 status, and he is still a bit green around the edges. For example he has to kill someone and the killing is tough and it’s messy and he finds it very disturbing. And it’s also interesting in the book, he drinks way too much and he smokes about 70 cigarettes a day! (laughs).

Q: Times change . . .

Oh they do. So he is vulnerable and a dark character. He doesn’t find it easy. He’s very much a misogynist and explains why in the book – actually there’s a very good description of why he detests affairs and he actually talks about the steps you go through and it’s so true, how it all ends up leaving a nasty taste in your mouth. And of course Fleming at the time was about to be married to a woman he didn’t want to be married to, so all of that sort of fed into the book.

Q: Were there performances of Daniel’s that convinced you he was your Bond? I’m thinking of the movie Layer Cake . .

Well, Layer Cake has a certain charm about it despite being about drugs. He is very charming in it. And normally, you associate him with slightly heavier roles like Enduring Love, The Mother, Sylvia, and actually I thought Munich was one of the best things he’s done, although he’s hardly got a line in it. He’s bursting with vitality in that role. And as I’ve said, this Bond had to be darker, and Daniel can convey that.

Q: Do other contemporary movies feed into the decision to reinvent Bond? I’m thinking of maybe The Bourne films with Matt Damon.

They are up to date movies. I love The Bourne Supremacy and Paul Greengrass is a very talented director, he has that documentary style which gives it a great sense of realism. But, yes, there’s that to think about. Also, I think Cubby Broccoli always wanted to make Casino Royale so that was one of his passions to get the rights to the book and make a movie but he died before that was possible. So Barbara and Michael saw it had become available and leapt on it.

Q: Do you have to convince yourself that the actor you choose is going to be up to giving a performance that will be holding the whole thing together?

Yes, but ultimately you don’t know, you just hope you get it right. Action is difficult. There’s a tendency to be dismissive and say, “Oh it’s just action”. It’s tricky. And I’m talking about the kind of action that feeds into the character and narrative. Some actors you would expect to be very good because of their image, turn out to be incapable of doing action. Others are just naturals.

Q: What did you make of the sniping in the press about Daniel?

First of all, with the press you sometimes shake your head in bewilderment. I remember on GoldenEye we had the “Bond is dead” stories. In this case I think it’s that Daniel is not the traditional pretty boy type. He’s good-looking, tough, darker character, blond and not the Roger Moore type clotheshorse.

If you read the books you will find that he is a darker character who does have an inner conflict. He has a lot of demons and he has a lot of vices and he does get beaten up. So it’s a very different thing. And I think Dan has this rugged good-looking quality and he has the darker side, the tougher side that we wanted for the part.

Q: Is it possible to forget that it’s a Bond movie while you are making it?

Oh I do, the actual Bond thing doesn’t affect me at all; it’s making a film, the drama that affects me. And you know as much as this is a Bond film, it’s also a love story, it’s about a relationship and that has to work and that has to be right. On that level, we have great chemistry.

Casino Royale opens in Malaysia on Nov 16.

Thanks to `Brokenclaw` for the alert.

Discuss this news here...