Martin Campbell speaks candidly about Casino Royale origin story

24-Jan-2010 • Casino Royale

Having reinvented James Bond twice, director Martin Campbell knows how to set up a character in a way that creates future movies. Campbell told ReelzChannel that it's all about an origin story:

"Casino Royale of course was an opportunity to go back to the tone of the books which they never were in the original movies. They never have been. Even the [Sean] Connery movies are not in the same tone as the book. I was lucky enough to have an origin story."

"Bond really doesn't become Bond until the last frame of the movie. He's a fucked up guy. He's a guy who smokes too much. He doesn't smoke in the movie but in the books he certainly smokes too much, he drinks too much, he abhors a certain kind of violence when it's very messy and ugly. It's something he hates. He finally shoots someone in the forehead with a bullet, but the bathroom scene is very distasteful and ugly and clumsy and messy."

"So there are elements to Bond, and of course a great relationship with the girl which allowed you the one meaningful relationship in his life apart from On Her Majesty's Secret Service where he marries the girl. So that was a really great opportunity to get into the tone of the books and make him a much darker, more fucked up character which was way more interesting in my opinion.