Filmstalker: Tarantino says Casino Royale idea is his

I don't get the Hollywood ego's because here's Quentin Tarantino allegedly saying that he was the one that had the idea for a remake of Casino Royale (Filmstalker review) and he's received no credit for the Bond makers stealing his idea.

That's the story according to ENewsI.com.

Well, I'm not that surprised no one else had thought of the idea really, especially when you consider that:

There were no more original Ian Fleming novels to adapt
Casino Royale was the only Ian Fleming novel not adapted for a Bond film
Bond was dead and needed a restart
A franchise restart worked for Brosnan's Bond and returned Bond to glory
The same director that restarted the franchise before was on this film
Hollywood was, and is, full of remakes and prequels right now

Add all those together and he's right, I have no idea how anyone could have come up with the Casino Royale idea, do you? Tarantino thinks differently:

"I resent that none of them gave me a shout out that I'm the one (that) got them making Casino Royale"

According to Tarantino it was Harvey Weinstein that suggested the idea of Tarantino to the studio, but when he said that the studio replied, according to Tarantino:

"They told him, 'We're afraid Quentin's going to make it too good and f**k the rest of the series."

Well I could see the saying something like that, or at least thinking it, but it still doesn't quite ring true. Surely they thought that if Tarantino did it they could expect a whole run of strong directors queuing up to do one film? Regardless I'm not so sure this is the complete truth.

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Where do these people get the ego?

Ho-hum.

Posted by: Simone | March 23, 2007 8:45 PM

You want the truth???
You can't handle the tooth .. uh .. yea'

I'm just surprised they didn't give me a credit either, i thought of it too & so did Spartacus .. tuh .. so ungrateful these film makers :-P

Posted by: _ram-jaane' | March 23, 2007 11:17 PM

HAHAHAHA

Nice one Ram. ;)

Posted by: Simone | March 23, 2007 11:20 PM

tarantino did mention it a long time ago - one of the many projects that passes between his ears and usually exits via his mouth - i can remember reading about it at the time, mentioned that he wanted to do a bond movie and would like to do 'casino royale'. tis true. still, all of what you say, richard, is perfectly logical too.

Posted by: logboy | March 24, 2007 7:53 AM

In Tarantino's defense, although I think wanting "credit" is a bit of a push, there wasn't anyone talking about doing a movie "out of continuity" so to speak, until Tarantino pitched it.

Posted by: Matt Holmes | March 24, 2007 9:39 AM

I do remember him saying it logboy, and he was the first publicly to speak about it, I just find it incredibly hard to believe that the people working on the series hadn't been considering this since the last Fleming book was made, and even before that.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | March 24, 2007 11:52 AM

You've got to be kidding me. Just mentioning what title to make is not coming up with the idea of the re-invention of the series ! Does that mean if I just riff off a title I can claim credit ? I think most of it goes to Paul Haggis, Neil Purvis, and Robert Wade, who wrote the movie.... A pitch is different from an actual fleshed out idea.... No doubt his "Royale" would be full of pop culture references and the F-word....

The "we don't want him to make it, because it would just be too darn good" quote is what sealed it - QT is full of himself, and making it up.

Am I the only one who thinks it's funny for someone who made his bones copying/referencing tons of Hong Kong films be accusing someone else of not giving him credit ?

Posted by: RZ | March 24, 2007 2:29 PM

If I remember rightly, both Tarantino and Brosnan were keen on the idea of reviving the James Bond franchise by allowing Tarantino to direct Casino Royale.

So I don't think it's completely unreasonable for him to be a bit miffed when the studio decides to revive the Bond franchise with a grittier remake of Casino Royale.

Posted by: Paul | March 24, 2007 11:14 PM

RZ...

Again in Tarantino's defense, he will be the first to admit and tell everyone EXACTLY where he "stole" everything for his movies.

He always makes it a point to credit his sources when you hear him talking in interviews.

Posted by: Matt Holmes | March 25, 2007 5:19 PM