The Story Of Quentin Tarantino's James Bond Movie Pitch To Pierce Brosnan
Before James Bond found new life in the form of Daniel Craig, Quentin Tarantino really wanted to make his own Bond movie with previous 007 Pierce Brosnan. Tarantino wanted to make his own Casino Royale, set in the '50s or '60s, with Brosnan possibly co-starring alongside Uma Thurman. The filmmaker even met with Brosnan about the project– but it never came to be. Both Tarantino and Brosnan have talked about this in the past, and recently, Brosnan elaborated a bit more on what happened.
During a live-watch of GoldenEye, former 007 Pierce Brosnan opened up a bit about discussing a new Bond movie with Quentin Tarantino. "It was after Kill Bill Vol. 2, and he wanted to meet me, so I went up to Hollywood one day from the beach, and I met him at the Four Seasons," Brosnan said (via Esquire). "I got there at 7:00 P.M., I like to be punctual. 7:15 came around, no Quentin, he was upstairs doing press. Someone sent over a martini, so I had a martini, and I waited till 7:30, and I thought, where the heck is he? Word came down, apologies, so I thought, okay, I'll have another martini."
When Tarantino finally showed up, Brosnan admits he was a bit drunk – or "fairly smokered" as he puts it. Tarantino promptly ordered even more martinis, and the two of them got even more "smokered" while Tarantino passionately pitched his idea.
"He was pounding the table, saying you're the best James Bond, I wanna do James Bond, and it was very close quarters in the restaurant and I thought, please calm down, but we don't tell Quentin Tarantino to calm down." Brosnan said, adding: "He wanted to do James Bond, and I went back to the shop and told them but it wasn't mean to be. No Quentin Tarantino for James Bond."
This story isn't entirely new. Brosnan spoke about the meeting before, and even included the martini detail. But this is the most comprehensive account of the meeting so far. As for what Tarantino's Bond would've looked like, the filmmaker has touched on it a few times in the past. "After Pulp Fiction, I tried to get the rights to Casino Royale away from the Broccolis, but that didn't happen," Tarantino said. "That wouldn't have been just throwing my hat in the franchise ring; that would have been subversion on a massive level, if I could have subverted Bond."