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EDIT: I actually just took a look at the script, and it looks like we've been thinking wrong about Fatima Blush and Domino's casting. In the script, at least in the one I have, Fatima is described as "[...]tall for an oriental, but there's no doubting the Eastern flavour[...]" and that she "[...]has a Korean mother and Spanish-Moroccan father[...]".
Dir: J Lee Thompson
James Bond ..... David Warbeck
Domino ..... Isabelle Adjani
Emilio Largo ..... Bruno Ganz
Blofeld ..... Klaus Kinski
Felix Leiter ..... Stacey Keach
M ... Eric Porter
Q ... Desmond Llewelyn
Miss Moneypenny ... Jenny Agutter
Kinski is my dream casting for Blofeld, but I keep asking myself if he could have kept himself calm through filming. I have never watched Fitzcaraldo, but I have seen his legendary on set metldown.
I could also see Porter as Blofeld (something close to his Prof. Moriarty in the Granada Sherlock Holmes), but having already cast Blofeld, I thought why not as M?
Relating to my comment in the Moonraker appreciation thread, which I did really appreciated!
One thing that quickly came to my mind, what if Casino Royale was made in the Moore Era?
What do you guys think would have happened?
How do you imagine Moore in Casino Royale?
Let's say the Producers acquired the rights to the novel in the 70's (or 80's) and made it to film in the same decade (the 70's/80's), how would that fare out?
1. Whom would you cast as Vesper Lynd? Le Chiffre? Mathis? Opposite Moore's Bond?
2. Would they adapt the novel faithfully? Or change some scenes? Or would it deviate far from the novel?
3. Would it be successful?
4. How would it change the Moore Era?
Proven that Moore could play a serious Bond as seen in For Your Eyes Only, how do you guys see Moore in Casino Royale?
What if Casino Royale was made in the Moore Era? (And starred Moore?)
- The torture scene would probably have been PG-softed.
- Le Chiffre probably would have been a KGB agent.
I think Moore could do it, but it'd require a strong director. It'd collapse if he played it like TMWTGG.
With Maibaum and Mickey G writing it would follow the novel fairly close with the addition of some action scenes. Cassandra Harris plays Vesper, Topol plays Mathis and maybe Steven Berkov would be Le Chiffre. David Hedison returns as Leiter.
Moore is playing own his age and he falls for Vesper more than a decade after losing Tracy. The PTS begins at Tracy's grave.
This version would premiere only 14 years after the 67 CR so there'd be a very conscious attempt to make it more serious, yet still providing Sir Roger with some witty dialogue.
The casino sequences are lit like the casino scene in FYEO and the entire film has that sort of look.
The torture scene would follow a very exciting Remi Jullienne car chase.
Sir Roger certainly performs his iconic OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH as he's struck in the groin with a carpet beater. Another difference, he's wearing a dishevelled dinner suit in while tied to the chair as opposed to being nude as per the novel.
He's still getting it in the groin though.
Michael Gotthard plays Gettler whom Bond pursues after Vesper dies via cianide and we still get to see Roger kick his car off a cliff.
The film bookends with a revisit to Tracy's grave and Vesper is buried in the same cemetary.
On an upbeat note, Bond is summoned back to the office as the film ends.
For the third film in a row............
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN IN
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
I could imagine a Casino Royale adaptation in the early 80s, around the time of Octopussy, using the structure of the novel broadly while changing much of the details.
or "It's all in the wrist."
¿What If... The first Bond movie wasn't "Dr.No", but rather a totally original story?
I reckon it would've bombed if the first film wasn't adapted from Fleming. It wouldn't have happened because he was trying to get his novels filmed for a while.
Regarding your post:
And no, I think it's Impossible to do it, especially that at the time, Fleming was still alive, so no they couldn't do an original story for Bond, Dr. No was chosen because it's the easiest Bond novel to adapt and more appropriate for the budget.
Fleming wouldn't allowed the producers to make their own story for Bond, it needs to be adapted from one of his novels.
If not Dr. No, possibly From Russia With Love could be the first film, because it's not that much on action, heck Fleming even wanted to have Hitchcock film this one or either Thunderball.
Possibly Thunderball could have been the first film given McClory's demands.
But it's not going to be an original story.
Back at the time when Fleming was alive, the Producers have no power to do what they want to do with Bond, the power was still on Fleming, I think they've even asked him about the changes made in each films, and without of Fleming's approval, it couldn't happened, the Producers got the full control and power after Fleming died, they could change what they want to change, they could stray away from the source material, add or change some scenes, and they could create original stories without adhering to the source materials.
Yes, Broccoli and Saltzman had selected TB to be the first adventure. It was the newest release and made sense to be the first, however the court case and legalities put a brake on that plan and DN was selected instead.
I think it is intriguing to think of TB being the first Bond adventure. Many production challenges would have awaited them and I doubt the $1,000,000 budget would have been enough to bring it to the screen. As it is DN tapped them out and required some creativity of Adams. I think it worked out best. At the very least we would have got a scaled down TB and I am not sure it would have launched the series the way DN did.
I don't think Fleming had that much power with Eon when he was alive. That's not how Hollywood works.
Now if it were France, maybe.
According to reports Ms. Welch was offered the role by the producers and politely turned it down so that she could star in 1,000,000 Years B.C. While I am a huge fan of Claudine Auger and what she brought to the role, I can envision Raquel doing the role justice.
But lets hear from the community. What if Raquel Welch had starred as Domino in TB in 1965?
That's not to knock against Claudine Auger (RIP to her too), but she's dubbed and not that much in the acting department.
Raquel Welch could've played the character convincingly.
Edit: I don't know if this was meant to be a premonition, but I've had a thought of Raquel Welch yesterday, her image just suddenly popped up in my mind yesterday.
Raquel was considered for the role of Tiffany Case also which I think would have suited her better.
Yes, it might depends, even you're an English or American, if your voice or accent are undesirable or they did find ugly or not fitting for the role, they might dubbed you.
Love the thought of Shirley Eaton's Yorkshire accent!
'Ey up, giz them binoculars, will tha? Arr, thar oreyt, thee, Mester Bond.' :))
Yes, it must 'uv bin sometin' like that...or so. Not saying I can truly copy it, but heavy Yorkshire accent is one of the occasions when I prefer to have English subtitles activated. Even more than Southern U.S. drawl.
The decision to dub a character is not always easy to understand. Nikki van der Zyl, who (apart from her numerous re-voicing jobs) was hired as a voice coach for Gert Fröbe with his English lines in GF, said it would have been perfectly ok to keep his own voice for the movie (once she was done ;-)). Though I must say that Michael Collins did such a perfect job in dubbing Fröbe that it took my wife and myself years to realize that it wasn't Fröbe's voice in the English version. While it was totally obvious that he dubbed himself in the German version, and quite terrifically so...provided one accepts movies in another language than the original.