The Truth About The Extended Cut Of Casino Royale
From the Snyder Cut to the Ayer Cut to the Extra-Extended 18-hour No Seriously This Is The Last Time Cut of "Blade Runner" that Ridley Scott is keeping locked in his steamer trunk until he thinks he can get away with releasing it, quasi-legendary extended director's edits of movies have never been more popular. For better or worse, they tend to be a win-win situation for viewers and filmmakers — fans get to blow one more breath of fiscal viability into the movies they love, while the studio gets to enjoy spending said fans' money on stuff.
In recent years, there have been rumblings of another mythic cut of a beloved film, kept from the eyes of prospective audiences by a studio system that felt that the public couldn't be trusted with this much awesomeness. "Casino Royale" represented a renaissance for the James Bond franchise, with its humorless, gritty approach to the adventures of 007, so the idea that there might be even more of it had social media users ready to show up.
Then, during a Reddit AMA in August of 2021, "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell dropped a massive truth bomb fans, without even bothering to hold the world ransom for $1 million beforehand.
The extended Casino Royale is a bust
During the Reddit discussion, Campbell was confronted with the rumored existence of a "Vesper Cut" of "Casino Royale" — one featuring "a substantial amount of footage" with Eva Green's character, Vesper Lynd, interacting with Daniel Craig's freshman 007. Were the rumors true?
"No," Campbell replied, "just about all the footage with Vesper was included in the film. There (were) probably one or two tiny scenes that were not included, but probably about 97% of her involvement made the final cut."
And just like that, a blow was struck to James Bond fans around the world. Yes, Virginia, there is no Vesper Cut of "Casino Royale." You'll just have to make due with the 24 other main-series entries in the film franchise, the one-off "Never Say Never Again," the "Casino Royale" television anthology movie from 1954, the "Casino Royale" parody from 1967, and the "James Bond Jr." animated series from 1991. Also, in theory, "No Time To Die" will come out at some point, giving devotees one last hit of that sweet Daniel Craig MI-6 action before he's trotted out to the super spy farm upstate. Meanwhile, fans of Campbell's work can check out his new film, "The Protégé," when it hits theaters August 20.