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James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli recently reflected
on the latest film Casino Royale and the casting
of
Daniel Craig...
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Broccoli On The New Bond
18th March 2007
A graduate of Loyola University, Los Angeles, where
she majored in motion picture and television communications,
Barbara Broccoli has worked in the production and casting
departments at EON Productions for many years. Together
with her step-brother Michael G. Wilson, she produced "Casino
Royale", the twenty first 007 adventure in the series,
starring Daniel Craig and Eva
Green.
Starting her career as an assistant director on "Octopussy" and "A
View To A Kill", Barbara worked her way up to become
associate producer on "The
Living Daylights" and "Licence
To Kill". She then went on to produce "GoldenEye", "Tomorrow
Never Dies", "The
World Is Not Enough" and "Die
Another Day".
Broccoli recently spoke to FilmStew to
discuss the making of "Casino Royale" and the casting
of Daniel Craig in the lead role. Even though "Die Another
Day" had enjoyed the largest box-office takings in the
series' history in 2002, Broccoli & Wilson decided to
take the franchise in a fresh new direction, and the successful
of the latest film vindicated their bold approach. |
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"It's always a challenge because you sit
down and you say, 'What journey are we going to take Bond on?'" she
told FilmStew. "We were very lucky this time because we
had the book and we basically just sat down, analyzed the book
and thought, 'How are we going to adapt this for today?'" "I
mean, it was written
in 1953. I think the essence of the book
is certainly in the screenplay, which is that the Le
Chiffre character is banker to the world's terrorists. He is the one
that enables all this money to be moved around, to fund all kinds
of terrorist activity. I think that's very relevant today, because
as we are all concerned about terrorists we're also concerned
about how they are funded. So, strangely, it fit very well into
a story that had been written in 1953. I think that the plots
ARE complex, but it's supposed to be a mystery. You're supposed
to be intrigued and try to figure out what Bond is up to as he's
trying to unravel the mystery as well. And hopefully by the end
of it you feel as if you sort of understand everything."
Some of the recent entries in the series, such
as "The
Living Daylights", have been noted for their complex plots,
but there is no risk of the Bond films "dumbing down" to
Hollywood. "I think when you make films you have to assume
that people are intelligent," she argues. "I think,
often, people do dumb down films too much. Audiences, I don't
think, really like that. There's nothing better than when you
go to a movie and, afterward, you're having your glass of wine
or you're having your hot chocolate and you say, 'Why did he
do that?' or 'Why does…' and you talk about it. That's
something I think people like. It's a communal experience. I
think people like to go to the movies and they like to talk about
them and argue about them. That's part of the fun."
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The most reported
aspect of making Casino Royale was not the source material,
the plot, the return to 007's roots
or the gritty and realistic approach. Casting a new
James bond created waves in the media before any decision
had
been finalised and anyone had seen Daniel Craig perform
in the famous tuxedo.
"The REALITY was that Michael and I always wanted
Daniel," she says. "He was our first choice from
the get-go. The fact was we approached him and he said,
'Look, I'll consider it, but I'm not going to make a decision
until I read a script.' So the time between giving him
the script and announcing him was about three or four weeks.
All of that other stuff was a lot of speculation. Obviously,
we didn't know if he would do it, so we did meet a lot
of people and we considered people, but the speculation
was… dumbfounding to me. There was so much press
going on, rumors about what we were doing that just were
not true. We wanted him. He's the only person we offered
the role to. He read the script and he agreed." |
Above: Daniel Craig is James
Bond |
Casino Royale broke all box-office records for
the Bond series around the world and work has now started on
the 22nd installment, due out
on November 7th 2008. Broccoli
reflected on what her late father, Cubby, would have thought
about Craig
in the role. "I think he would love Daniel. When Daniel
did that scene where he shoots the gun, I burst into tears because
that's all I could think of, that 'I just wish my father was
here to see him in this role.' Because I think he would have
loved him."
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