The James Bond movie Quentin Tarantino refused to watch
There aren’t many films that Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t take the time to watch. Seeing as he’s a true cinephile in every sense of the word, no genre is too much of a stretch for the iconic director, and he’s previously expressed his admiration for films of every kind, from American B-movie to world cinema to romance.
But a pride that runs deep within Tarantino has led him to turn his nose up at a film or two that has not gone his own way. While Tarantino is indeed one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, not every project he’s been associated with has made it to the final stages.
In fact, Tarantino was once rumoured to be making a version of the James Bond film Casino Royale, although he missed out on the opportunity. This led to the director having no interest in the version of Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig when it finally came out many years later.
“I don’t think I ever came close to it; I don’t think they ever considered me,” Tarantino once admitted in an interview with Movies.ie. “I never saw the movie because I felt kind of raw about it. I could never really imagine doing it with the Broccolis for the simple fact that they are never going to give me control.”
The director continued, “They could read the script I write and let me do it, but they were never going to give me final-cut control. And I don’t know if I could ever trust them enough that it would all work out because they were going to be too nervous about it. It’s important to them. It’s important to me but for different reasons.”
Casino Royale arrived in 2006 as the third film adaptation of the 1953 Ian Fleming novel of the same name. It was directed by Martin Campbell, with Daniel Craig making his first appearance as Bond alongside Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright, but how different it might have been with Tarantino at the helm.
Tarantino went on to explain how close he got to taking on Casino Royale. Just after the release of Pulp Fiction, his seminal work, Tarantino was offered the opportunity to put his own spin on the fabled character. Admitting his annoyance at not being able to at least open discussions with the Bond producers and explain how his vision and style might suit the movie franchise, the director was turned away.
“I am annoyed for two reasons,” he said, “They never met with me – I deserved at least a meeting, a talking-to. The second thing is the fact that I actually deserved thanks because they would never have made Casino Royale without me. They went on record saying it was unfilmable, and when I started talking about the idea.”
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