JAMES BOND 007 MAGAZINE | From bland to BAFTA

From the Archive
007 MAGAZINE OnLine
(August 2007)

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From Bland to BAFTA

The world premiere on Tuesday 14th November combined three of London’s prime theatres – the ODEON Leicester Square, ODEON West End and the Empire – generating the most attended film premiere ever in Britain with 4,200 people taking their seats alongside Her Majesty The Queen to watch Daniel Craig take his bow as 007.

In little over a month Casino Royale became the highest grossing Bond film of all time...

Not much has been heard from former Bonds themselves since the film’s release. Pierce Brosnan claims that he did not see the movie for a while after its release. However, prior to shooting both Brosnan and Sir Roger Moore were full of admiration and well-wishing for Craig, and even Sir Sean Connery had been quoted early on that Craig was a good choice.

Daniel Craig meets Her Majesty The Queen at the premiere of Casino Royale

Bond number four Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of 007 was not a million miles away from Daniel Craig’s. Certainly the theory wasn’t. Unfortunately for Dalton it was maybe a case of wrong time and wrong place. Dalton has come out and praised Daniel Craig’s performance saying, “Daniel was a wonderful Bond in a great James Bond movie. I'm delighted for him.” High praise indeed!

It was a performance that brought not only critical acclaim but an award as well, as Best Actor at the 34th annual Evening Standard British Film Awards and even a nomination in the category for Best Actor in the BAFTA awards. This was one of nine categories for which Casino Royale found itself nominated and the first time ever that an actor had been nominated in the best actor category for playing 007. Unfortunately for Craig and the producers the film was only honoured with one BAFTA for Best Sound.

Miniature work was filmed on 'A' Stage at Pinewood Studios

ABOVE: Although many of the action sequences in Casino Royale were shot in real situations, CGI and scale models were used to complete the effect. The Miami Airport chase was shot at a Dunsfold Aerodrome and complimented with model work and special effects shot on ‘A’ Stage at Pinewood Studios.

Daniel Craig in Red Square, Moscow.

The reviews and marketing campaign saw Casino Royale become the UK’s third highest grossing movie on its opening weekend and it beat the previous record for a Bond film (previously held by Die Another Day in 2002) by raking in over $25 million in its first four days.

After only eight weeks and thanks to a prosperous holiday season the film's takings broke into nine figures – the first time ever for a Bond film in the UK, with a total of $100,850,441 – becoming only the third British film to do so following Titanic and Lord of The Rings: Return of The King.

In little over a month Casino Royale became the highest grossing Bond film of all time, overseas having hit the top spot in all 27 countries in which it was screened on its opening weekend. At that time it had yet to hit big markets such as Italy and China and its takings stood at over $500 million.

No sooner had the movie hit the screens than the DVD was available for pre-order and shot straight to the top of the pre-order charts on both sides of the Atlantic. This was the latest in a long line of compliments from an adoring public and yet further vindication that Daniel Craig was a successful James Bond, a fact confirmed by both opinion and statistics.