WHAT: Casino Royale (2006) 20th Anniversary
WHEN: November 11, 2026 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Introduction by James Bond author Raymond Benson at 7 PM.
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee.
Advance Tickets: Click Here and select date and time (7 PM).
“Daniel Craig impressed me so greatly in his debut outing, Casino Royale, by introducing a more gritty, unrefined edge to the character that I thought Sean (Connery) might just have to move over. Craig’s interpretation was like nothing we’d seen on screen before; Jimmy Bond was earning his stripes and making mistakes. It was intriguing to see him being castigated by M, just like a naughty schoolboy would be by his headmaster. The script showed him as a vulnerable, troubled, and flawed character. Quite the opposite to my Bond! Craig was, and is, very much the Bond Ian Fleming had described in the books– a ruthless killing machine. It was a Bond that the public wanted.” ~ Sir Roger Moore
On November 11 (James Bond’s birthday*), we’re raising the stakes with a 20th anniversary screening of Casino Royale (2006)– a film that our guest, author Raymond Benson, has called “a perfect Bond film.” It’s a reboot of the series that brought new life to the Bond legacy. Daniel Craig, in his first outing as 007, is more of a brutal killer compared to past Bonds– a “blunt instrument,” as M calls him. As a result, the film is an edgier, more realistic spy thriller. The Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series has never presented a film this modern before, so it’s a testament to the exceptional qualities of Casino Royale that we’ve included it as one of our annual Bond Events.
Pierce Brosnan’s final outing as James Bond, Die Another Day (2002), was arguably the nadir of the entire franchise with its cartoon-like action, CG effects and invisible cars! Despite his potential and the high expectations associated with his portrayal, Brosnan was saddled with scripts that never really clicked on the screen. Aside from the last, these were not necessarily bad films– certainly GoldenEye (1995) has its admirers– but they all sort of blend together. This quartet of films made money in the 1990s and early 2000s, but they were a far cry from what audiences had hoped for with Brosnan’s casting. An attempt to bring Pierce Brosnan back for what would become Casino Royale was made, at least initially, but in the end, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson decided to turn the page and go back to Bond’s origins with a younger actor. The filmmakers consciously wanted to do for James Bond what Christopher Nolan had done for the Batman character in Batman Begins (2005). It was time for a change. The only casting holdover from the Brosnan era would be Dame Judi Dench, who returned to play “M”– albeit in a different cinematic timeline.
Casino Royale was the last Bond novel to be made into a film. The journey to bring this Cold War thriller to the screen is one of cinema’s great odysseys. It has been detailed at length in the documentary, The Road to Casino Royale (2008). Writer Ian Fleming wrote the book in 1952, and it was published the following year. Then in 1954, producer Gregory Ratoff, a gambler himself, secured the rights to the novel from Ian Fleming. In the fall of that year, it was translated to television for an episode of CBS’ Climax! Barry Nelson played “Jimmy Bond” in an interpretation that simply fell flat. Enlisting Lorenzo Semple, Jr. to write a screenplay, Ratoff’s next attempt lacked the James Bond character altogether, instead replacing him with an American gangster named “Lucky.” In 1956, Ratoff sold 50% of his share of the book’s rights to Hollywood agent Charles Feldman. Feldman, in turn, tried to enlist Howard Hawks to direct it, but in the wake of the success of Dr. No (1962), Hawks decided to pass.
After Gregory Ratoff’s death in 1960, Feldman secured all the rights from his widow. Failing to make a film deal with James Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Salzman, Feldman took his project to Columbia where he produced the 1967 spoof, Casino Royale. It featured many of his Hollywood clients as the movie’s stars, notably Peter Sellers as James Bond. The film bombed, and the rights, now held by both United Artists and Columbia, fell into legal limbo. In 2005, Sony (Columbia) became a shareholder in MGM (which released the Bond films), thus opening the door for Eon Productions to acquire the rights to finally bring Casino Royale to the screen– in a version that ultimately did justice to Fleming’s original work.
Screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who had been previously connected with the Bond films, were undoubtedly inspired with the reboot because it produced some of their best work– not just here but in the sequels that followed. Wade has said of Daniel Craig, “When you have an actor you play to his strengths … He’s got this great toughness to him but not an unthinking toughness. I think that’s where the films will need to go.” Collaborating with Purvis and Wade was Paul Haggis, who was the screenwriter on the Best Picture winners, Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (2005).
With two professional assassinations in quick succession, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is quickly elevated to “00” status. Bond’s first mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). Bond decides to investigate independently of MI6 in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his girlfriend, Solange (Caterina Murino). He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world’s terrorist organizations. Intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. M (Judi Dench) places Bond under the watchful eye of Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond’s interest in her deepens as they face danger together– and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre.
French actress Eva Green as Vesper Lynd…
Following the October 14, 2025, official announcement that Daniel Craig had been cast, Eon productions commenced filming of the 21st James Bond film on January 27, 2006. Martin Campbell, who introduced audiences to Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, was the film’s director– and Phil Meheux the primary cinematographer. Principal photography began in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and would conclude on July 20 at Pinewood Studios in England. Prague was the main filming location, but the production also traveled to the Bahamas as well as to Venice, Italy, where the film’s climax– the sinking of a Venetian house– takes place. This extraordinary set-piece, among many others in the film, was all accomplished with the use of practical effects and not CG imagery.
The film’s opening, which establishes the mood in black and white, sets the tone for the entire picture. Casino Royale has a grittier look, giving the immediate impression that this is more like the spy films from forty years before. The action scenes, heightened by composer David Arnold’s chase music, are particularly effective. Bond’s foot chase with Mollaka in Madagascar (filmed in the Bahamas) incorporated parkour– an acrobatic running sport that is one of the highlights of the film. The Bond films had come a long way from the obvious stunt doubles and break-away cars from twenty years before in A View to a Kill (1985)! The story was more rooted in reality, and it’s clear that the franchise had been influenced by more serious approaches at that time with films like The Bourne Identity (2002).
One of the most suspenseful scenes in the film does not rely on physical action; instead, it’s the staging of the high stakes poker game with ten players around a table. Martin Campbell took the subject of gambling and made it visually engaging for the audience. The casino sequence transpires over the course of three separate scenes, and each time, Campbell uses the camera differently to build tension and capture the reactions of the players.
Casino Royale premiered in London on November 14, 2006. With a worldwide box office take of $606 million, it was the highest-grossing James Bond film prior to Skyfall (2012). It’s not a surprise that a Bond film did well at the box office, but what was remarkable were the reviews and critical acclaim. Craig’s performance was praised, but the entire cast was first-rate, particularly Eva Green as Vesper. Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre became one of the strongest Bond villains in the series. Jeffrey Wright portrayed CIA agent Felix Leiter in a role that would recur throughout the series. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars. His voice was just one of many that recognized this was a different type of Bond movie. On a personal level, Casino Royale was the first James Bond movie that I wanted to see a second time during its original theatrical release. It was stylish in a way that few others had been. As mentioned previously, James Bond author Raymond Benson has spoken highly of the film. He will introduce it at 7 PM and will expand upon the film’s creation. We are honored to have Raymond back for this important anniversary in the history of James Bond.
~MCH
*In James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, author John Pearson gives the birth date for James Bond as November 11, 1920. November 11 is, of course, Armistice Day (Veterans Day). In the movie Skyfall, Bond’s passport shows the date November 11, 1972.
For the first time on the Mega-screen!
Daniel Craig as James Bond and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter…
