The many forms of "Casino Royale"

The TV Show
In 1954, CBS began a series called Climax! That was an hour long mystery drama show. For one episode, CBS paid Ian Fleming $1000 for the rights to adapt Casino Royale. The one our episode aired on October 21, 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond" actually making him the very first actor to play James Bond 8 years before Sean Connery. Jimmy Bond was an American secret agent, Felix Leiter's name was changed to Clarence Leiter and giving the county origin of England. Vesper Lynd was changed to Valerie Mathis.

The Comic Strip
The Daily Express Newspaper in England ran a comic book adaptation of Casino Royale from July 7 to December 13 in 1958. The comic was written by Anthony Hern and drawn by John McLucky.

The 1967 Movie
Earlier in 1955, Ian Fleming sold the movie rights of his novel to Michael Garrison and Gregory Ratoff for $6000. After trying to sell the rights to 20th Century Fox, the ended up selling it to Charles K Feldman during the 60's. The Bond films where already an enormous success, and Feldman went to the executive producers of EoN Productions Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and proposed a serious adaptation of the novel starring then Bond star Sean Connery. They declined. Feldman decided to produce a spy-spoof meant to poke fun at the Bond films. Casino Royale was released in 1967 by Columbia Pictures.
The retired Sir James Bond (David Niven) is persuaded to rejoin Her Majesty's Secret Service and head an operation to destroy SMERSH. His mission? Topple Le Chiffre (Orson Welles), whose baccarat winnings support the evil organization. Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress) joins the mix and helps recruit baccarat ace Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) to impersonate James Bond and confront the villain. Adding to the mayhem is Sir James' neurotic nephew, Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen), a SMERSH defector. The agent currently using the name James Bond and the number 007 would help if he could, but he and Moneypenny are too "busy."
The movie has no less than five people credited as director: Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, and Robert Parrish. Casino Royale was budgeted for $12,000,000 and grossed $22,660,450 in the US.

The Stage Play
In 1985, Raymond Benson, who became the fourth official James Bond author in the late 90's, wrote a stage play for Casino Royale. The play was submitted to a British agent, who suggested it never be produced.

The 2006 Movie
In 1989, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired Columbia Pictures, and with it anything and everything Casino Royale. Sony then decided to remake Casino Royale as a serious Bond movie. They also had the idea to create a rival Bond series. This pissed MGM and EoN (the owners of the Bond series) off, seeing as how a rival Bond series would cramp their style. Ten years later, in 1999, all things were settled between Sony and MGM when Sony traded the rights to Casino Royale for partial rights to MGM's Spider-Man. But in the end, it all didn't matter. In 2005 Sony bought out MGM and now owns the studio, and the film rights to the entire James Bond universe. Also in 2005, after a three year hiatus from making Bond films, EoN Productions announced the 21 Bond film to be made. It would be Casino Royale, with a new star.

Daniel Craig is scheduled to be the sixth official actor to portray James Bond. So far, Judi Dench is the only other confirmed player, reprising her role as M. With Rose Byrne expected to be announced as the actress portraying Vesper Lynd later this week.
The plot is said to be the same as the novel. Except there will be no SMERSH. And it is said that this is a "Bond Begins" and this is meant to be Bond's first mission. The car Bond wil be drivng has been confirmed as the new Aston Martin DBS. The 1969 Aston Martin DBS was featured in the sixth Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Casino Royale will be set in modern times. It will be directed by Martin Campbell, who also directed GoldenEye to great success.
The movie is set to be released in November 17, 2006. Principle photography begins Monday January 30th. A treaser poster is also expected to be released at the end of this month. Casino Royale official movie site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale/site/

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