Around this time he even went as far as approaching Sean Connery directly to ask him By 1964 Feldman had invested nearly $550,000 of his own money into pre-production of Casino Royale. No, the first Bond adaptation made by Broccoli and his partner Harry Saltzman through their company Eon Productions.Ģ. They eventually gave up once they saw the 1962 film Dr. The pair considered Leigh Brackett as a writer and the English-born, American actor Cary Grant as James Bond. Feldman passed on the offer as his friend, the director Howard Hawks, had an interest in adapting Casino Royale himself. (Broccoli, and co-producer Harry Slatzman, then initially turned their attention to acquiring the rights for Thunderball, as we discussed here, before settling on Dr.No). Broccoli, who had a long time interest in adapting James Bond, offered to purchase the Casino Royale rights from Feldman, but he declined. Feldman represented Ratoff's widow and obtained the Casino Royale rights.Īlbert R. The following year, Ratoff set up a production company with Michael Garrison to produce a film adaptation, but wound up not finding financial backers before his death in December 1960. In March 1955 Ian Fleming sold the film rights of his novel Casino Royale, the first book featuring the character of James Bond, to the producer Gregory Ratoff for $6,000.

The story of the 1967 production of Casino Royale predates the first 'official' James Bond movie, Dr.

Casino royale cast 1967