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Rogue Royale: The Lost Bond Film by the 'Shakespeare of Hollywood'
In the mid-Sixties, the James Bond films became a global phenomenon as the world thrilled to their spectacular action sequences and cool gadgets. But the films nearly went in a very different direction, with a much darker treatment of Ian Fleming’s first novel by Hollywood’s most acclaimed screenwriter. In this short ebook, journalist and spy novelist Jeremy Duns unearths Ben Hecht’s drafts of Casino Royale. Rogue Royale is around 11,000 words long, and builds on his ground-breaking 3,400-word article published in The Sunday Telegraph in 2011.
Praise for Jeremy Duns:
'A wholly engrossing and sophisticated spy novel set against a forgotten corner of 20th century history. Fascinating and compelling' – William Boyd on Free Agent
'A taut and tortured exploration of betrayal on the national, ideological and personal levels simultaneously… A cleverly twisted tale of intrigue and deception, this is a masterly excursion back to the bad old days of the Cold War' – The Times on Song of Treason
'The immediacy of Duns’ writing grabs and suspends the reader in a beautifully realized heartbeat of recent history' – Kirkus Reviews on The Dark Chronicles
'This excellent book contains lessons that are still valid in the 21st century' – Oleg Gordievsky on Dead Drop
'Fantastic research and digging... a great read' – Gordon Corera on Dead Drop
'The career of Oleg Penkovsky reads like a story by John le Carré… Duns’ denouement is both startling and convincing – a fitting climax to this irresistible real-life thriller' – Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday
Praise for Jeremy Duns:
'A wholly engrossing and sophisticated spy novel set against a forgotten corner of 20th century history. Fascinating and compelling' – William Boyd on Free Agent
'A taut and tortured exploration of betrayal on the national, ideological and personal levels simultaneously… A cleverly twisted tale of intrigue and deception, this is a masterly excursion back to the bad old days of the Cold War' – The Times on Song of Treason
'The immediacy of Duns’ writing grabs and suspends the reader in a beautifully realized heartbeat of recent history' – Kirkus Reviews on The Dark Chronicles
'This excellent book contains lessons that are still valid in the 21st century' – Oleg Gordievsky on Dead Drop
'Fantastic research and digging... a great read' – Gordon Corera on Dead Drop
'The career of Oleg Penkovsky reads like a story by John le Carré… Duns’ denouement is both startling and convincing – a fitting climax to this irresistible real-life thriller' – Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday
- GenresFilmNonfictionHistory
60 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 23, 2013
4 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Jeremy Duns
21 books79 followersJeremy Duns was born in 1973 and is the author of the acclaimed Paul Dark spy novels. He lives in the Åland islands.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 26, 2020
The missed-it-by-that-much story of how we could (possibly) have had a straight, sexy, dangerous, daring interpretation of Casino Royale coming out around the same time as Goldfinger, instead of having to wait until 2006 for it. I wish there had been more information in this slim volume, but, like the film, it just doesn't exist.
November 2, 2019
While perhaps no 007 tale has more drama around it than Thunderball, Casino Royale might come a close second. The original Bond novel, Ian Fleming sold the rights for a comparatively small sum and thus started five decades of right issues and different adaptations, before we got the 2006 film that introduced Daniel Craig in the role of Bond. The journey along the way is one of the broadly untold chapters of the franchise's history, something which Jeremy Duns seeks to rectify.
Rogue Royale's focus is on the various scripts written by Ben Hecht, the one-time Oscar-winning "Shakespeare of Hollywood." Hecht appears to have spent a fair amount of the early-mid sixties writing different drafts for producer Charles K Feldman (who ended up with the film rights to the novel), a large amount of which have survived among his archived papers. Duns' short book is a deep dive into both the story of Bond on-screen and into the scripts. And what a fascinating journey it is, too.
In large part, because Hecht's scripts are so different from one another. Duns reveals a writer (and indeed a producer in Feldman) trying to figure out how to bring Fleming's debut Bond novel to the screen, especially as the Eon films with Sean Connery started to hit the screen. To say the results are all over the place might be a bit of an understatement. There's one draft that reads like a Roger Moore era take on the novel written nearly a decade before he took on the role! Duns also reveals that one draft contained the seed for the idea at the heart of the 1967 spoof that Feldman did produce, albeit done in a decidedly more serious fashion.
There's also plenty of nuggets, too. One of the later drafts Hecht wrote, and which Duns explores, reads like a fascinating mix of those early Connery films and what we've come to expect later on in Craig's era. In short, something with all the makings of a classic Bond film that wasn't meant to be. The tragedy is how close that version came to being made and just how much everyone, from Feldman to the producers of the Eon Bond films and Bond fans the world over, lost out as a result.
For that reason alone, Rogue Royale is worth a couple of dollars and an hour of your time. You might be surprised at what you didn't know about the efforts to film Casino Royale. More than that, you could get a glimpse into another world and a great Bond film that never was.
Rogue Royale's focus is on the various scripts written by Ben Hecht, the one-time Oscar-winning "Shakespeare of Hollywood." Hecht appears to have spent a fair amount of the early-mid sixties writing different drafts for producer Charles K Feldman (who ended up with the film rights to the novel), a large amount of which have survived among his archived papers. Duns' short book is a deep dive into both the story of Bond on-screen and into the scripts. And what a fascinating journey it is, too.
In large part, because Hecht's scripts are so different from one another. Duns reveals a writer (and indeed a producer in Feldman) trying to figure out how to bring Fleming's debut Bond novel to the screen, especially as the Eon films with Sean Connery started to hit the screen. To say the results are all over the place might be a bit of an understatement. There's one draft that reads like a Roger Moore era take on the novel written nearly a decade before he took on the role! Duns also reveals that one draft contained the seed for the idea at the heart of the 1967 spoof that Feldman did produce, albeit done in a decidedly more serious fashion.
There's also plenty of nuggets, too. One of the later drafts Hecht wrote, and which Duns explores, reads like a fascinating mix of those early Connery films and what we've come to expect later on in Craig's era. In short, something with all the makings of a classic Bond film that wasn't meant to be. The tragedy is how close that version came to being made and just how much everyone, from Feldman to the producers of the Eon Bond films and Bond fans the world over, lost out as a result.
For that reason alone, Rogue Royale is worth a couple of dollars and an hour of your time. You might be surprised at what you didn't know about the efforts to film Casino Royale. More than that, you could get a glimpse into another world and a great Bond film that never was.
November 21, 2019
A short well-written account of Ben Hecht's work on a never-filmed adaptation of Casino Royale.
Interesting snippets of dialogue show that Hecht did 'get' Bond.
A fast, worthwhile read.
Interesting snippets of dialogue show that Hecht did 'get' Bond.
A fast, worthwhile read.
November 8, 2015
I read this Kindle Single a couple months ago, long before Spectre came out. I'm a big Bond fan, and this spends some time looking at the early draft of Casino Royale. Overall, this is a quick and interesting read, probably more for fans of Bond or film in general than a truly mind-bending look on a whole, but one this Bond fan is glad he picked up.
May 5, 2019
An interesting short book about an unfilmed script of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale. The film rights were held by a different owner than the Saltzman/Broccoli combination who released the first Bond films with Sean Connery and they had to wait until the 2006 film starring Daniel Craig.
April 13, 2019
Fascinating read! I thought that I knew most everything about the behind the scenes stories of the 007 films, but I learned a great deal more in reading 'Rogue Royale'. Well done, Mr. Duns!
-C.G. Faulkner, author of 'The Edge of Reality-A Cold War Thriller'
-C.G. Faulkner, author of 'The Edge of Reality-A Cold War Thriller'
October 12, 2014
Jeremy Duns is a Bond fan, no doubt, in this well documented e-book he follows the saga of Casino Royale from the CBS Climax Theater version with Barry Nelson as 'Card Sharp Jimmy Bond' to failed attempt to make the first Bond novel into a film, not from EON but from 20th Century Fox . In fact Charles Feldman was involved in the later plot ideas that makes their film Bond much more hater edged than the movies that followed. Course none of these ideas were ever put on film, but it gives a glimpse of a totally different James Bond.
Interestingly enough Feldman produced that horrific Casino Royale version in 1967 because he wanted to wreck the EON series. Well aren't we glad that plan flopped. A must read for any Bond fan.
Interestingly enough Feldman produced that horrific Casino Royale version in 1967 because he wanted to wreck the EON series. Well aren't we glad that plan flopped. A must read for any Bond fan.
May 15, 2014
Rogue Royale was a great fast read about an abandoned James Bond screenplay written by Ben Hecht, who had penned many noteworthy clasic films such as Scarface and Hitchcock's Spellbound and Notorious. Jeremy Duns gives us a glimpse into what this lost Bond film could have looked like and provides some very solid research into how this all came about. Hecht's unused screenplays for Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, are quite ingenius and one wonders why the producer abandoned Hecht's work in favor of doing a comedy spoof that resulted in the much maligned 1967 Casino Royale film. This is a quick short read and it's well worth reading for Bond aficionados.
June 17, 2016
Having read everything written by Ian Fleming I could find I couldn't resist this work.
It shows an interesting back drop of interpersonal film writers and producers and the often convoluted history of creative writing and movie making. The original Ian Fleming stories apparently challenged many people to tweak and improve on his work. Casino Royale is used like a biology specimen to show us what a twisted experience a story and film can take.
It shows an interesting back drop of interpersonal film writers and producers and the often convoluted history of creative writing and movie making. The original Ian Fleming stories apparently challenged many people to tweak and improve on his work. Casino Royale is used like a biology specimen to show us what a twisted experience a story and film can take.
June 11, 2015
An entertaining short read that is more about the process by which films get to the screen rather than James Bond. If you ever wondered why it took so long to get a Casino Royale Bond film off the ground and how the spoof film of the 60s got made instead then this is for you.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews