Daniel Craig exceeded all expectations last year as the sixth and grittiest 007 in CASINO ROYALE, rebooting the franchise with an all-time best worldwide box office gross of nearly $600 million. Now Ian Fleming's first James Bond adventure comes to the home theater March 13, 2007, from Sony Pictures Home Ent. in a variety of formats: two-disc DVD ($28.96), Blu-ray Disc ($38.96) and PSP ($28.95).
Director Martin Campbell (GOLDENEYE) introduces a more stripped-down approach to the 21st Bond movie, and Peerless Camera Co. provides exceptional vfx that's seamless, especially during the airport action sequence and thrilling climax in Venice.
CASINO ROYALE traces the early career of James Bond (Craig) as he is elevated to double-O status. M (Judi Dench), head of the British Secret Service, sends Bond on his first mission leading him to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world's terrorists. In order to stop him and bring down the terrorist network, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale. Bond is initially annoyed when a beautiful treasury official, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), is assigned to deliver his stakes for the game and watch over the government's money. But as Bond and Vesper survive a series of nearly lethal attacks by Le Chiffre and his henchmen, a mutual affection develops, leading Bond to learn his most important lesson: trust no one.
CASINO ROYALE marks the Blu-ray debut on a 50GB dual-layer disc encoded in MPEG-4 AVC.
"With software sales up 700% since the mid-November launch of PlayStation 3 and other Blu-ray hardware from manufacturers, the market is poised for maximum impact blockbusters like CASINO ROYALE," said David Bishop, president, Sony Pictures Home Ent. "We're proud to be the first to deliver Bond on Blu-ray with the best picture and sound quality available today. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Blu-ray in 2007."
The set is rather light on bonus features (no audio commentary from Campbell or Craig), but contains an informative doc on how Craig became Bond, a featurette on the action and stunts, a previously produced doc on the Bond girls and Chris Cornell's music video for the title song, "You Know My Name."
Sony Pictures Home Ent. is a Sony Pictures Ent. company (www.sonypictures.com). SPE is a division of Sony Corp. of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corp. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital contest creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 73 countries.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
