Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name. Directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis, it is the first film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, and was the first Eon-produced Bond film to be co-distributed by Columbia Pictures. Following Die Another Day, Eon Productions decided to reboot the series,[4][5] allowing them to show a less experienced and more vulnerable Bond.[6]
Casino Royale takes place at the beginning of Bond's career as Agent 007, as he is earning his licence to kill. The plot has Bond on an assignment to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro; Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a treasury employee assigned to provide the money he needs for the game. The film begins a story arc that continues in the 2008 film, Quantum of Solace.
Casting involved a widespread search for a new actor to succeed Pierce Brosnan as James Bond; the choice of Craig, announced in October 2005, drew controversy. Location filming took place in the Czech Republic, the Bahamas, Italy, and the United Kingdom with interior sets built at Barrandov Studios and Pinewood Studios.
Casino Royale premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 14 November 2006. It received an overwhelmingly positive critical response, with reviewers highlighting Craig's reinvention of the character and the film's departure from the tropes of previous Bond films. It earned over $616 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing James Bond film until the release of Skyfall in 2012.
Source: Wiki
