Casino Royale

One of the special features on the Casino Royale DVD is a short documentary called Becoming Bond. I watched it and I'd definitely recommend to others. The documentary tells the history of the book (it was the first Bond novel) and the first Casino Royale movie. It turns out it was made into a spoof on the later Bond novels and movies. For years, Albert Broccoli tried to get the film rights to the book. Finally, in the early 90's, they succeeded. The book presented some interesting challenges to Broccoli's film company. The novel is the first and so shows a young Bond who has just achieved his OO status. He's feeling his way as to how he should do things. Because the Bond in Casino Royale is younger, the film's producers had to ditch Pierce Brosnan. Plus, I think they wanted to get away from the previous Bond movies which had become a bit cliche. In order to revive the franchise, they had to come up with something new. By going back to the first book and showing a grittier and more raw James Bond, the film company succeeded in creating something new and fresh.

The documentary also tells how Daniel Craig was selected as the new James Bond and some of the problems he and the studio encountered. Not all Bond fans were keen on Craig becoming the next Bond and they weren't shy about making their opinions known. To qualm some of the jitters of studio higher-ups about Craig getting the role, the studio did one day shoots of each of the leading actors for the role so they could convince the studio higher-ups that Craig was the one. The higher-ups were convinced but various fans weren't. Craig states in the documentary that their criticism drove him to try to make an even better film.

Overall, I found this special feature in the Casino Royale DVD really interesting. I learned how Daniel Craig to the role of Bond, how the movie came about and learned something of the actors and actresses in the film. I wouldn't recommend you buy the DVD just for this feature. You should buy the DVD because Craig is one awesome butt-kicking Bond. But, the documentary is something worth watching and a really nice added feature to the DVD.