Casino Royale is the first film in the James Bond franchise worn by Daniel Craig, just after the incarnation of Pierce Brosnan. Why was the latter left out of the spy franchise?
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Monday October 28 at 9:05 p.m.
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Released in 2008, Casino Royale takes the James Bond franchise from scratch. Spectators delve into the beginnings of the spy’s career, when he has just obtained his 007 number and the famous license to kill. As a result, a change of actor is necessary: it is Daniel Craig who takes his first steps (lauded by critics and the public) in the role, succeeding Pierce Brosnan, who played the secret agent in four films.
If Pierce Brosnan never failed to praise the qualities of Daniel Craig (“I have the greatest admiration for him”, he said in 2022), he however spoke about the way in which he was fired from the franchise of spy movies. His last appearance as 007 dates back to Die another dayreleased in 2002. At the time, there was already talk of a fifth film featuring his iteration of James Bond, and the actor did not expect to be fired.
A reboot of the franchise
As he tells it in Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond FilmsPierce Brosnan received a phone call from his agent while he was in the Bahamas, working on another feature film. “They told me: ‘The negotiations are stopped. Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson [producteurs de la franchise] don’t really know what they want to do. They will call you next Thursday,” he first learned, as he told the Guardian. Then the famous phone call, during which Michael Wilson allegedly told him: “You have been an excellent James Bond. Thank you very much,’ and I said, ‘Thank you very much. Bye’. That was all. I was completely shocked and they left me in the gutter with the way it happened.”
The reasons for Pierce Brosnan’s dismissal were never really explained. According to the authors of Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Filmsthe producers already had the idea of rebooting the saga with a younger 007, in a more realistic approach. Furthermore, Pierce Brosnan would have asked for too big a fee for a fifth film, which would also have led to this decision. Subsequently, Daniel Craig was chosen to play the new James Bond, and Casino Royale is under construction. The film and its sequel Skyfall particularly, as well as Craig’s interpretation, will be praised by critics and the public.
Synopsis – James Bond has just been named agent 007 and now has the right to kill. His first mission pits him against an individual named Le Chiffre, a wealthy banker who, by financing international terrorism, has become the head of the largest criminal network in the world. In order to put him out of harm’s way, James Bond must beat the dangerous character during a high-risk poker game at Casino Royale. He then meets Vesper Lynd, responsible for looking after the money that the British government has made available to him to participate in the game.