James Bond: Quentin Tarantino's cancelled Casino Royale plans revealed

Casino Royale is rated as one of the best James Bond movies to this date. However, a lot of work went into making it happen. After the failure of Pierce Brosnan’s last Bond outing, they wanted to make the franchise bankable once again. So, they spoke to multiple directors before Martin Campbell was finalized, and many actors were considered before Daniel Craig became the new Bond.

However, Casino Royale could have happened way before 2006, as legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino had a plan for it in the 1990s. After the success of Pulp Fiction, the director wanted to make a Bond movie, but he didn’t want to work with the owners, EON Productions. So, he came up with a plan to make a film without working with EON Productions.

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Why Quentin Tarantino couldn’t make his James Bond movie

While speaking with Deadline in a recent interview, Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino revealed his talks with Miramax to adapt the Casino Royale novel, as its rights were not owned by EON and were tied up with Ian Fleming Estate. Tarantino revealed:

"That's what I wanted to do after Pulp Fiction was do my version of Casino Royale, and it would've taken place in the '60s and wasn't about a series of Bond movies. We would have cast an actor and be one and done. So I thought we could do this. But then it turned out that the Broccolis three years earlier figured out somebody was going to try to do what I did.”

Tarantino’s plan couldn’t come to fruition as the Bond producers had already figured out how someone could make a Casino Royale-inspired movie without getting into bed with them.

Tarantino continued:

“And so what they did is they just made a blanket deal with the Fleming estate and said that: 'We have the movie rights to everything he's ever written. We're going to just give you a bunch of money. This is for every single thing he's ever written. If anybody wants to make a movie out of it, they got to come to us.'"

Despite being unable to make the film due to this reason, the director believes that his idea of 007 in the 60s should be taken on by someone. In fact, many others from the James Bond novels were either altered or haven’t been used until now. They should all be turned into movies.

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Why a “James Bond in the 60s” would be a great idea

While Quentin Tarantino may not be interested in making a James Bond movie in the present day, the producers of the franchise should certainly consider his idea. Daniel Craig’s modern-day Bond franchise was gritty and grounded in reality, involving a lot of practical action. To change that and get people interested in a new actor’s Bond franchise, Barbara Broccoli and Co could take things back in time.

When a new James Bond actor gets picked remains to be seen. However, putting him in the 60s or any other period piece era would make the franchise interesting and innovative in a unique way. A lot of the elder Bond fans would get to reminisce about the old era of 007, while younger generations would get something very different than Craig or Brosnan’s era.