How Quentin Tarantino’s Dream Bond Movie Got Shut Down Before It Even Started—Here’s What Happened
Quentin Tarantino once pitched a ‘60s-set Casino Royale film, but the Bond franchise blocked his vision. Here’s why the Broccolis refused to take the risk.
Tarantino’s Lost Bond Film ( Photo Credit – Flickr )
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Quentin Tarantino had his sights on Casino Royale, but the Bond franchise had other ideas. After Pulp Fiction, he pitched a ‘60s-set, one-and-done Bond film. He even approached Ian Fleming’s estate, but the Broccolis shut him down, securing all rights before he could move.
“They had suggested that they still own the rights to Casino Royale,” Tarantino explained. “That’s what I wanted to do after Pulp Fiction… We would have cast an actor and be one and done. So we could do this.”
Unfortunately, the Broccolis were already one step ahead. They saw the potential for outside filmmakers to create competing Bond projects and moved fast. They struck a deal with Fleming’s estate, securing exclusive rights to everything the author had written, including every short story and travel book. “If I want to make a movie of Thrilling Cities, I need to go to the Broccolis,” Tarantino quipped.
Despite his star power, Tarantino never got to plead his case. The Broccoli family, known for their iron grip on the Bond franchise, refused to meet him. “No, but I had people who knew them and everything,” he recalled. “They weren’t keen on altering the Bond formula after 60 years.”
The Kill Bill director admitted that he heard the same reasoning time and time again: “Look, we love Quentin, but we make a certain kind of movie, and unless we f**k it up, we make a billion dollars every time we make that type of movie, OK?” They weren’t willing to take a risk, even if a Tarantino Bond film would have been a guaranteed hit.
Tarantino eventually moved on, channeling his love for spy thrillers into Inglourious Basterds. But the sting of rejection lingered. To this day, he believes the Bond films have never truly honored Ian Fleming’s original works. “They never did the stories,” he said. “They took the plot line, and maybe the Bond girl or maybe the villain, and then just went their own way.”
As Tarantino prepares to retire after his next film, The Movie Critic, the question remains: What if? What if he had been given the keys to Bond’s Aston Martin? Would audiences have seen a grittier, more character-driven Casino Royale years before Daniel Craig’s version?
For now, it remains one of Hollywood’s biggest what-ifs. Tarantino’s Bond never got a license to kill, but in an alternate universe, his take on 007 could have been legendary.
