James Bond films have been a very large part of cinema for many decades. Although the title was worn by many individuals, the character’s effect and influence remained the same, ushering in a wave of spy thrillers that became a genre of their own. Many actors have tried themselves in this character, for example Pierce Brosnan Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore, but none were as iconic or popular as Daniel Craig’s version.
First appearing in Casino Royale, the actor portrayed the character in a way that was unseen and unheard of at the time. However, it would seem that a lot of this had to do with the film’s director, Martin Campbell, who had a unique take on the character. At one point during an interview, the director revealed aspects of the character that he decided to include from source material that had already been created previously, and character traits that were left off the drawing board.
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The James Bond director added something new to his version of the character
Martin Campbell was the mastermind behind not only one, but two James Bond films, which created new versions of the character, starting with golden eye, and then move on to Casino Royale. While we can’t necessarily pinpoint a specific reason why Daniel Craig’s character was more successful than characters in the past, we can look at the differences between them. During an interview with SlashFilm, The director talked about how he played the character differently.
“In the book, quick kills and a bullet to the head, Bond is fine with that. If it’s a terrible murder, like at the beginning of Casino Royale, when there’s a terrible fight and he’s sitting in the bathtub trying to drown him, then it’s a terrible murder. This is something he finds difficult to deal with. It was from a book.”
The films are based on a series of books about the character written by Ian Fleming. Campbell revealed that he decided to adapt the books into films, which made the character even more outstanding. In the books, as well as previous versions, we see James Bond as a very calm character, never seeing him break a sweat or experience any difficulty in performing his duties. Things were different when it came to Craig’s version of the character, whose opening sequence, according to the director, featured a very ugly and brutal murder.
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What the hell did James Bond The director decided not to star in his film?
While this feature made Martin Campbell’s James Bond stand out, there was one feature in the books that the director refused to add to his film that was not missing from previous versions. This character trait in question has been revealed SlashFilm, it was 007’s tendency to indulge in vices that the director felt came from the author, who also had a habit of doing the same.
“He also smoked 70 cigarettes a day, which we obviously didn’t take into account because they don’t do that in movies anymore,” he added. “He also drinks too much and has a slightly unstable liver, which is of course Fleming’s own fault. He drank too much and smoked hand-rolled cigarettes, which eventually caused him to have a heart attack.”
Developing this theme, Campbell said that Bond had a tendency to smoke constantly and also drink quite a lot, which Ian Fleming was also well known for and even caused his death. The director said that, in his opinion, at such moments in the cinema it would be appropriate to demonstrate such habits.
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Source: SlashFilms