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.”
Martin Campbell, who directed GoldenEye in 1995, returns to direct CASINO ROYALE. “Martin is a director who knows how to tell a story. We worked well together on GoldenEye, so he knows Bond and our production team. It was a fantastic opportunity to get him back to work with the new Bond.”
After choosing a director, the next task for producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli was to cast the actor who would play James Bond in 007’s 21st screen adventure. Says Barbara Broccoli, “As soon as we met him, Daniel Craig was the obvious choice for James Bond. He’s an actor who defines his generation of British actors. He is charismatic, versatile and sexy. The role is a big challenge, but he has proven to us that he is an incredible Bond.” Adds Michael G. Wilson, “In Daniel, we have a modern Bond, one who has the authenticity we need to redefine this very complex character. Bond is a commander, ex-Navy, who has just been given the extremely rare double-0 status – the authority to make kill decisions on his own. Daniel is skilled in articulating the conflicting emotions that Bond feels. He is a great actor totally committed to the role.”
The producers cast French actress Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, the first woman with whom Bond truly falls in love. Says Michael G. Wilson, “Eva Green is fantastic. She is destined to be one of France’s leading international actresses. Vesper is the most important woman in Bond’s life, and we needed someone who had all the qualities of Vesper: beauty, strength, enigma and some sadness. She is Bond’s equal. She is a good person who finds herself in an untenable situation.”
Judi Dench returns as M. “She has made the role her own, so we couldn’t imagine anyone else playing M,” says Michael G. Wilson.
The production started off in Modrany and Barrandov Studios, in the Czech Republic, before moving on to the Bahamas. Says Wilson, “It’s important that a Bond film has glamorous and exotic locations. We have a location in the Bahamas around the One & Only Club on Paradise Island where Bond tracks down Dimitrios. Our art department also transformed part of the Bahamas into the African Island of Madagascar, using a disused motel as a shanty town and an abandoned hotel complex at Coral Harbor as a building site where Bond chases Mollaka, played by free runner Sébastien Foucan. In fact, the abandoned hotel is where we filmed the hotel rooms in Thunderball. It’s now part of a military base. On The Spy Who Loved Me, we used the same location as a camera platform and had models and workshops.”
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