James Bond Coming Close to Castration

Returning to Ian Fleming's original novel, the new Bond film will apparently put 'a bit of the dash' back into the character.

Feb 24 2005

Director Martin Campbell has revealed several juicy new details about the next James Bond film, and as well as creating a more human 007 for the upcoming 'Casino Royale', he'll also come close to castrating the legendary super-spy.

'In the new film, Bond is essentially starting out in his career', he explained of the plot. 'The idea is to put a bit of dash back in Bond. By the end of the movie, the character will have been forged into the wiser, harder Bond we know now.’

Campbell, who previously directed the excellent 1995 Bond film 'Goldeneye' and is currently working on 'The Mask of Zorro' sequel 'The Legend of Zorro', also revealed that the story will need updating as author Ian Fleming’s original 1953 book is somewhat out of date in the 21st Century.

'There are things that will have to be changed from the original novel' he explained to the New York Daily News. 'The Cold War elements will have to be reconfigured, for example, but 'Casino Royale' will be a grittier and more realistic Bond movie.'

And as for the book's famous scene of near castration at the hands of Bond baddie Le Chiffre, Campbell says 'I don’t know what we're going to do with that', adding that the sheer horror of the moment 'ranks up there with the teeth-drilling scene in 'Marathon Man'.

There's still no word regarding who will play Bond at the moment, nor whether the character will get drunk and smoke 70 cigarettes a day as he does in the novel, but Campbell disclosed that he can't wait to inject some realism into the character.

'I'm looking forward to humanising Bond a bit,' he admits, and after the faintly embarrassing invisible car and CGI surfing antics of previous Bond film 'Die Another Day', we can but hope that Mr Campbell is a man of his word.