DBWI: WI Casino Royale had been axed?

The Vulture

Banned
Orson Welles' 1956 adaption of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, starring Dirk Bogarde as James Bond and Welles as Le Chiffre, is considered a classic film and kicked off the popular James Bond series of movies.

I read that the studio nearly killed the movie in production. What might result if this happened?
 
I did actually see the original made for TV Casino Royale with Barry Nelson but never saw the Welles production. How many did? The Bond series didn't become well known and popular until Goldfinger. Dr. No and From Russia with Love were re-released following Goldfinger as a double feature. The rest is history.
 
OOC: Is this based on a any real life plan? Welles did kick a lot of ideas around, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had wanted to make this (he adapted The Lady from Shanghai from a pulp novel, so a Fleming adaption would be a slight step up.)

Off the top of my head I think a Wellesian Bond series would look and feel a lot like TV's Dangerman--very noir-like, very adult. The kind of things that we only ever saw flashes of in the Broccoli franchise. Most of the gimmicks and tropes would be out, for starters.

There's one problem with the casting, though. Dirk Bogarde hadn't established himself as anything more than a matinee idol at this point, and I'm sure 1955ish Welles no longer has the ability to promote a gifted actor too far above his station (not that Bogarde didn't have real depth--I'm a little amazed to look at his filmography and to find he never did anything noir-like before The Night Porter. Everybody else in the UK film industry had the chance to do some pretty dark thriller roles in the heyday of British films.)

It would be great if an AH-Welles were to cast Patrick McGoohan (in keeping with my Dangerman idea), or Sean Connery, or maybe even Peter Finch, but sadly none of those actors were anywhere on the radar for Hollywood in this era.

Yet there is one young actor who had broken through into Tinseltown from across the pond by the mid fifties--Richard Burton.

Hmmm, launching a wildly successful commercial franchise that just won't die would actually kind of suck for the guy whose ambition was to be the greatest living actor after Olivier.

Or else Orson could do what he did when casting a Mexican hero for Touch of Evil. Get an all-American guy...
 

The Vulture

Banned
OOC: Is this based on a any real life plan? Welles did kick a lot of ideas around, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had wanted to make this (he adapted The Lady from Shanghai from a pulp novel, so a Fleming adaption would be a slight step up.)

OOC: This has basis in reality, including the casting of Bogarde, although the original project was Moonraker rather than Casino Royale.

Can we make with some actual DBWIing?
 
Well, I think it would be only a matter of time before the series got its kick start, since tthe books were fairly popular. Even President Kennedy was a fan of From Russia With Love. However, if they started later, say in the 6o's, I suspect they would have more of a pulp fiction feel to them, instead of the crime noir style that Orson did with them.
 
60's pulp fiction? More likely either Bond is a sexy, young, idealistic guy to go along with the British Invasion, or he's a strawman for the Radical Left to show just how nasty all of the Cold Warriors are.
 
OOC: This has basis in reality, including the casting of Bogarde, although the original project was Moonraker rather than Casino Royale.

TV, the story that Welles wanted to film Moonraker is an Internet hoax, like the very similar story about Welles wanting to star as Batman in a forties movie adaption.

The Vulture said:
Can we make with some actual DBWIing?

Sometimes I find real knowledge so much more stimulating.
 
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