A NEW BOND
With his starring role in CASINO ROYALE, Daniel Craig joins the elite group of actors who have donned the impeccably tailored tuxedo of quintessential superspy James Bond. Described by longtime Bond franchise producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli as "the definitive British actor of his generation," Craig says he was honored to be asked to play the iconic MI6 agent, but he was especially drawn to CASINO ROYALE because of the emotional complexity of the script and the way his character evolves throughout the course of the film.
"In this film James Bond is a darker character, which is how Ian Fleming originally wrote him," says the actor. "We start right at the beginning of Bond's career, when he has a lot of rough edges. He's a loner, and he doesn't like to get involved with people.
As the movie goes on, though, he becomes more refined."
In conducting their exhaustive search for a new lead actor for the 21st installment of the phenomenally successful franchise, Wilson and Broccoli turned to a tried-and-true approach. "When we audition for the role of Bond, we ask actors to do the scene in From Russia with Love, where Bond meets Tatiana Romanova for the first time," says
Wilson. "That scene has everything you want to know about a potential Bond: drama, romance and action."
Craig passed the test with flying colors, according to Broccoli. "As soon as we met him, Daniel was the obvious choice for James Bond. He is charismatic, versatile and sexy.
The role is a big challenge, but he has proven to us that he is an incredible Bond."
Craig, whose previous screen credits include Munich, Road to Perdition and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, was working in Baltimore when he got the news he had landed the coveted role. "I was on my own, so I went out alone to have a drink and celebrate. Of course, I couldn't very well start telling people in the bar, 'I'm James Bond!' They probably would have thrown me out, or called the hospital to collect me."
However, Craig says, as soon as the reality of the situation sank in, he was anxious to begin preparing for the role. Knowing the physical challenges he would face, the actor embarked on a rigorous fitness regimen to prepare for the shoot. The effort paid off as soon as production began in Modrany Studio outside Prague. The first scene he shot was the pulse-pounding chase sequence in which Bond pursues would-be bomber Mollaka through the Nambutu Embassy.
"I wanted to do as much of the action work as I could so that the audience can see it's me and it's real," says Craig. "I feel like I became a sportsman of sorts, and that meant acquiring injuries and carrying on, bashing through to the next level of pain. Although Gary Powell and his stunt team did fantastic work to make sure that everything was as safe as possible, if you don't get bruised playing Bond, you're not doing it properly."
"Daniel will be a revelation to the audience," predicts director Martin Campbell, who also directed Pierce Brosnan in his Bond debut, GoldenEye. "He combines toughness with charm and a sense of humor, and because this is a much more character-driven story, his depth and gravitas are a perfect match for the role. At the same time, he's in great physical shape and proved himself to be excellent in the action scenes."

THE BOND GIRL
After an extensive search, the filmmakers offered French actress Eva Green the role of Vesper Lynd, the alluring and enigmatic beauty who steals the heart of the seemingly impermeable James Bond.
"The relationship between Vesper and Bond is the spine of the story, and we needed an actress who could hold her own against Bond," says Campbell. "There is no doubt that this is the best female role in all of Fleming's books, so we tested extensively to ensure we cast the most suitable actress. Eva has all the qualities we were after: She's a terrific actress, she's gorgeous and she has an air of mystery about her, which is essential for the role of Vesper. Eva worked incredibly hard to create this role and take it to places I hadn't read into the script. It's been a joy to see her work and expand the character."
The Parisian-born Green, who made her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's steamy 2003 drama The Dreamers, explains what attracted her to the role of Vesper, the first woman Bond falls for and by whom he ultimately feels betrayed: "It's one of the best scripts I've read in a long time. It's deep, with lots of twists and turns, and the love story moved me. Vesper is a complex person. She is full of secrets, and I think that is why James Bond is attracted to her, because he can't really see through her. She is like a Sphinx. She has many layers: she's sharp, sassy, quick-witted, but also vulnerable.
She and Bond spark off each other, they are always bantering and they understand each other on the surface.
"Vesper is not the classic, iconic Bond girl, wearing a bikini, being sexy and firing guns," continues Green. "There is more to her than that. She is the first woman Ian Fleming wrote about, and she has a great impact on Bond's life. She is the root of all the Bond women who follow and explains why he behaves the way he does with those women."
"Hypnotic and magnetic" are the words Green uses to describe her co-star, Craig.
"He's a gentleman and he's strong, and he's not mannered. That ruggedness is attractive and probably quite dangerous. He is sexy and not self-conscious, which is very important for a man, and he has a sense of humor - another plus. I definitely feel there's chemistry between us on screen."
Green also shares the screen with famed Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, who plays Mathis, a grizzled MI6 operative stationed in Montenegro. "Giancarlo is very crazy in a nice way, very charismatic," she observes. "He is relaxed about his work and often had a wicked glint in his eyes that made it hard to keep a straight face during our scenes."
Although she was not involved in many of the film's elaborate action sequences, Green learned to scuba dive for her final scene, where she becomes trapped underwater in a fallen elevator cage inside a dilapidated Venetian palazzo. "I had to learn how to control my breathing underwater," says Green. "In the beginning it was scary, although of course it is perfectly safe because there are so many people looking after you. Also, I'm nearsighted, so I couldn't really see what was going on. I rehearsed in clear water, but during the takes the water had to be murky, like the Grand Canal. I think they used broccoli to get the right color!"
Green is full of praise for producers Broccoli and Wilson's distinctive approach to moviemaking. "They are passionate about filmmaking and will do anything to make it work. I've never had such positive involvement from producers before. In the beginning they helped me enormously with the character. They made me feel as if I was part of this big family. Being surrounded by calm people keeps the pressure off, and I could just focus on the work at hand."
Green believes CASINO ROYALE's involving storyline and romance gives it the potential to attract moviegoers beyond the legion of die-hard 007 fans. "Of course it's an action movie and a thriller, but it is also a love story, and I think women will identify with Vesper and be moved by her predicament. In comparison to other Bond films, it's more gritty and realistic and based more on characters than action. This is a different James Bond - raw and sensitive. People will see him in a different light. You see his flaws and watch him become the Bond you think you know."

THE BOND VILLIAN
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was thrilled to take on one of cinema's most despised (and prized) roles: the Bond villain. "I'm attracted to scripts where my character might have some secrets, so to be offered the role of Le Chiffre, 'the Cipher,' a man with no real name, was perfect. Many actors say that playing the villain is more interesting than playing the good guy because he always has a twist in his character. But I think if you are playing the bad guy, you try to show a good side to him sometimes, and if you are playing the good guy, you try to show a flaw in him, so it's not one-dimensional for the audience. My favorite Bond villain was Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill. He's got what it takes to be a good villain. There is something good and bad about him at the same time."
Mikkelsen purposely chose not to read the Ian Fleming novel before production began on CASINO ROYALE, preferring instead to develop his character exclusively from the screenplay and his extensive discussions with director Martin Campbell. He notes that Le Chiffre isn't the typical Bond-movie bad guy: Rather than a megalomaniacal madman looking to take over the world, Le Chiffre is an amoral criminal mastermind with a thirst for hard currency.
"He's living in the contemporary world and trying to make as much money as possible, just like everybody else," says Mikkelsen. "He's smart and clever and doesn't boast about his successes. He rarely gets his own hands dirty, but he will if he has to. When we meet him he's rich and successful, but Bond is on his tail. And when the chips are down he doesn't show his emotions. He's ice cold."
In order to recoup his massive stock-market losses, Le Chiffre organizes a poker game in Montenegro for international high rollers with a $10 million buy-in. The actors took poker lessons and rehearsed the games before filming began in order to keep the performances fresh as the hands were played and replayed over several days. Producer Wilson, a self-described poker "addict," supervised the rehearsals himself.
"Most of us could already play poker and, as well as rehearsing the tournament, we played poker for fun," says Mikkelsen. "In fact we often ended up playing in the corridors of [Prague's] Barrandov Studios between scenes."
Playing cards on camera for three weeks apparently only whet the actors' appetite for the game. One night Mikkelsen and some of his fellow actors ventured out to a casino in Prague - where they promptly ran into Wilson.
Like most gamblers, Le Chiffre has a tell, an involuntary tic that reveals how he feels about his hand, explains Mikkelsen. "He has a scar on his eye, and the vein starts to pump when his heart rate increases, so he casually presses his finger against it to stop, but Bond notices. It has to be as subtle as possible, of course, or he wouldn't win many poker games. But Le Chiffre manages to turn this flaw to his advantage."

M
Oscar® winner Dame Judi Dench returns in her fifth film as M, James Bond's steely superior at MI6, the British Secret Service. "Judi is now so much a part of Bond, she is a national treasure," says Campbell.
Unlike in her previous roles in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day, in CASINO ROYALE we get a glimpse of M's home life when the brash young Bond sneaks into her house to gain access to a secret database using her computer. "It's a riveting question," says Campbell. "What kind of home do you imagine M has? An old Georgian house in an elegant London square? No, this woman is full of surprises, so we've gone for a modern penthouse on the river in London's Canary Wharf. And it suits her!"
Dench agrees. "I love the flat that Peter Lamont has designed for M. I think it will be a shock for people who might have expected her to have a little house in Kensington or a pied-a-terre in Covent Garden. It's very minimalist, very tasteful. And of course the exact address is a secret, except to me, and now James Bond!"
Dench, who has been nominated for five Academy Awards and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love, also enjoyed the opportunity to take her character out of the confines of London's MI6 headquarters, shooting scenes at Barrandov Studios in Prague and on location in the Bahamas. She was also happy the film steered clear of any high-tech spy gizmos.
"In this film I don't have to get entangled with any gadgets, which is just as well, as I can't even work an ironing board!"
In CASINO ROYALE, M has only recently awarded Bond Double-0 status and her relationship with him is still in its early stages. After she gets raked over the coals by Parliament over a bloody shootout in a foreign embassy, the senior intelligence officer makes it perfectly clear that she expects Bond to stick to protocol going forward.
Instead, he disregards his superior's instructions and heads off on his own to the Bahamas to investigate the origins of a bombing plot, further infuriating M.
"After that, she's reluctant to entrust him with the responsibility of playing in the poker game, but she seems to have no alternative," says Dench. "By the end of the film you understand that Bond has grown, and M knows she is onto a good thing."
Dench gives a hearty thumbs-up to the actor who has stepped into the role of her maverick subordinate. "Daniel has a wonderful presence. He's very handsome and strong, but at the same time, you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of him. Those are all perfect traits to have as an actor. He seems to have relaxed into the role. I'm sure it gave him some anxiety, as it would any actor, but he doesn't show it on set. He has a great sense of humor, and I always find a shared sense of humor is the first clue to working well with an actor. He also has a kind of self-deprecation about him that is very attractive."
The venerable stage and screen actress describes director Campbell, with whom she first worked on GoldenEye, as "a safe pair of hands." "I did my first-ever Bond with Martin, and it's good to come back to work with him again. He is very enthusiastic and knows the conditions that actors like to work within. He knows that when you are doing repeated takes, you need to have an atmosphere of suspended calm and quiet, so you can get to the next take quickly while everything is still clear in your mind. There's nothing worse than an enormous break between takes, with people relaxing and wandering about. Martin is encouraging, gentle and excitable. And he knows the Bond scene very, very well."

THE SEX KITTEN
Italian actress Caterina Murino almost missed out on the opportunity to play Solange, the beautiful but unhappy wife of Le Chiffre's ruthless associate, Alex Dimitrios. She was filming in Argentina when the first casting session took place in Paris, but she got a second chance while filming in Rome where another audition was being held. "The day before my appointment I fell from a horse while rehearsing and ended up in the hospital with a back injury. I went to the casting session filled with painkillers. I could hardly walk! And then they asked me if I could ride, and I had to answer that I had just fallen off a horse!"
Despite the rocky start, Murino soon received the call at home in Sardinia offering her the role of Solange. "I was filming that day, dressed as a male soldier, with a false beard and a baby - the opposite of a Bond girl! Everyone was asking me, 'Are you sure the call was for you?'"
Although CASINO ROYALE marks Murino's first film role in English, languages come naturally to the 29-year-old actress. "I learned French in four months to play Jean Reno's sister in a French film, and I also filmed in Spanish in Argentina. But while I've worked in English on a television drama, I had to practice my English, and my horseback riding, for a couple of months."
Murino describes Solange as a very modern woman with poor taste in men. "My husband is Dimitrios, Le Chiffre's right-hand man. He is strong and rich and bad, a powerful combination, which attracts women. When she meets Bond, her husband has just been very rude to her in front of the whole casino. She decides to have some fun and get back at him, so she goes off with Bond. She doesn't know who he is. He's just a sexy guy who invites her for a drink. She has great sex, and then he's gone. But she pays a high price for her fun."
Describing Bond's near-universal appeal to women, Murino says, "We always fall in love with the impossible man, the man you have for one night who never comes back.
James is tough, dangerous and smart. He travels the world, but he never gives his heart, only his body. You shouldn't fall in love with him. With Bond and Solange the energy is purely sexual. It's chemistry."
"Normally I don't find sex scenes very comfortable," the actress adds. "But Daniel and Martin Campbell made it very easy, and I felt very calm. Martin has a lot of energy and a lot of authority. You can see that he likes to make action movies, but he's also great with intimate scenes."
Murino says she was also thrilled to be working with Judi Dench, although under unusual circumstances. "I had only one scene with Judi, and by that time I was dead.
Can I still say I acted with Judi Dench, even though I was only acting dead?"

THE FEMALE SIDEKICK
Portraying Le Chiffre's deadly female sidekick, Valenka, is Bosnian-born American Ivana Milicevic, whose numerous television and film credits include HBO's "Mind of the Married Man," Just Like Heaven and Love, Actually.
"I watched 007 when I was a kid, and I remember being terrified of Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me," says Milicevic. "Suddenly to be an adult and cast as a villain in a Bond film is fantastic."
While most of Milicevic's considerable acting experience has been in dramas and comedies, she says she felt right at home on the set of CASINO ROYALE. "In a way, it's like working on the independent films I'm used to. We would discuss each scene, rehearse, discuss the details and all come up with ideas. I was impressed that this was the way Martin Campbell handled such a big movie. A Bond film seems like a family who know exactly how to bring out the best in one another. You feel comfortable that everyone is really focused on what they want, which is great."
"I hope all the Bond fans are going to love CASINO ROYALE," says Milicevic, "but I also hope people who have never seen a Bond film watch it as a great story and a great thriller."

OBSTACLES
The astoundingly fleet and nimble bomb maker Mollaka, whom Bond pursues through the Nambutu Embassy, is played by Sébastien Foucan, the co-creator and one of the foremost practitioners in the art of Parkour. Also known as "Free Running," Parkour first came to the attention of the U.K. public in 2003, when the BBC broadcast a promo featuring a man running, vaulting and jumping over objects in his haste to get home to watch TV. It was later featured in the French futuristic police action thriller District 13 starring David Belle, Foucan's childhood friend and Parkour co-creator .
Based on the French word parcours, or obstacle, Parkour emphasizes the use of obstacles in the environment as props to help the runner move swiftly across the terrain. "It's not just about running and jumping," says Foucan. "It's about adapting yourself within your environment to overcome barriers to your physical progress. It's all about free-flowing movement. My character's skill is that he can move swiftly to escape from Bond, so we tried to find a way to move fast and efficiently rather than do stunt tricks."
Foucan, who often spends six or seven hours practicing Parkour on a special circuit in his hometown in France, adapted easily to the rigors of shooting CASINO ROYALE.
Still, he appreciated the dramatic tips he received from star Daniel Craig. "Daniel was very helpful, giving me advice about acting with cameras. Although he doesn't practice Parkour, he is very strong and finds it easy to run and chase. We spent three months working on this sequence which will be on screen for maybe five minutes, but I hope it will be an intense five minutes that people will enjoy."
Parkour takes its inspiration from acrobatics, dance, martial arts and popular art forms including cinema and comic books, but it also owes a debt to ancient Asian schools of thought, says Foucan. "Without philosophy, action has no meaning. Life is made of obstacles and challenges. To overcome them is to progress."

DIRECTING BOND
Martin Campbell, whose directing credits include action blockbusters The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro in addition to GoldenEye, says he was excited about taking the helm of CASINO ROYALE because of the transformation the secret agent character undergoes. "This is Bond's first Double-0 mission, and he has a lot to learn.
He makes mistakes early on and is reprimanded by M. He's thinking more with his heart than with his head, and things go wrong. But by the end of the movie he's becoming the man we know. We see Bond fall in love with Vesper, but he is also involved in some truly brutal violence. This is more realistic and more emotionally involving than previous films."
Although the Ian Fleming novel on which the film is based was first published in 1953, the film's setting is unmistakably contemporary. While the plot still centers on the villain Le Chiffre losing someone else's money in a seemingly foolproof scheme and arranging a casino tournament to try to recoup his losses, the film trades in Cold Warera references, such as Bond's nemesis, SMERSH, for the more up-to-date evil of international terrorist groups.
Another update on the Fleming novel is the game Bond and Le Chiffre play at Casino Royale. In the book, the game is Chemin de Fer, a variation of Baccarat. For the film, the game was changed to Texas Hold 'em, in part because of the recent worldwide poker phenomenon, says Wilson, but also because poker is a game of bluff and
strategy that offers more dramatic possibilities on screen.
The film's marathon card tournament turned out to be even harder to film than some of CASINO ROYALE'S spectacular action set pieces, says Campbell. "This is the most difficult thing I've ever had to shoot: 10 players around a table, playing Texas Hold 'em, all looking at their cards and each other. Maintaining the tension and the continuity was a nightmare. In fact, as an exercise it would be a very good test for film students to try.
Luckily, producer Michael G. Wilson is a genius at poker and very good at numbers. I couldn't have done it without him."
Wilson describes CASINO ROYALE as the film that the franchise's original producers Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman always wanted to make but couldn't because the rights weren't available to them. "Finally, in 2000, we obtained the rights to make the movie and went ahead with the script," says the producer. "It's Fleming's first 007 novel, so it's classic Bond."
Wilson, who is Albert Broccoli's stepson and has produced and/or co-written 11 Bond films, has seen the 007 series evolve over the last four decades. "In the 1970s the films got bigger and more fantastic until we reached Moonraker in 1979, which was in outer space. Then we brought it back down to earth in 1981 in For Your Eyes Only. With Die Another Day in 2002, the technology began to overwhelm the story and the characters, so we've come back down to earth again with a new, rawer Bond, whom we see earn his Double-0 status and take on his first mission for MI6."
With CASINO ROYALE, says Wilson, the filmmakers wanted to take Bond "back to basics." "We needed to reenergize ourselves after Die Another Day and, although we knew we'd have a guaranteed winner if we stuck to the same path, we would have lost what we think is important for the series."
The producer praises director Campbell, with whom he previously collaborated on the 1995 hit GoldenEye, for his storytelling talents and unrelenting commitment to excellence. "Martin has boundless energy, and he pushes everyone else. He expects 100 percent from the cast and crew, and he gives more than 100 percent himself. He starts work two hours before anyone else, pacing the set and preparing shot lists. The fact that he's already done a Bond film gives us all a shorthand method of working."
In addition to serving as producer and poker consultant on CASINO ROYALE, Wilson plays the role of a corrupt Montenegrin chief of police whose tenure abruptly comes to an end. "I've made an appearance in every film since The Spy Who Loved Me in one
form or another, sometimes only as a hand or a voice. It's become a tradition. I've been a priest and a scientist, but this is my first time as a policeman."
Although Bond has no spy gadgets in CASINO ROYALE, with the exception of his lifesaving, radio-controlled medical kit, he does get to put two Aston Martins through their paces, Wilson explains. "We show how he acquired the DB5, winning it in a poker game from Dimitrios, and Aston built a new car for us, the DBS, which they made in a new color, Casino Ice. It's a real racing machine, which MI6 gives Bond to drive in
Montenegro."

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