In 1955, Ratoff sold the Casino Royale rights to CBS producer Michael Garrison for a reported $10,000. Garrison planned a live TV adaptation. That fell apart.
Desperate and running out of time, Ratoff did what any desperate producer would do: he sold the rights to the only person who’d listen. gregory ratoff james bond film rights
Next time you watch Casino Royale (the good one, with Daniel Craig), raise a shaken-not-stirred martini to Gregory Ratoff. Without his mistake, Eon might never have learned what not to do. And without his initial belief, Bond might have stayed on the page forever. Do you know any other "what if" stories from early Bond history? Share your thoughts in the comments below. In 1955, Ratoff sold the Casino Royale rights
“A spy who orders his eggs soft-boiled?” they scoffed. “A villain named Le Chiffre who cries blood?” Too weird. “The hero actually falls in love and loses?” Too downbeat. Desperate and running out of time, Ratoff did
But the true origin story of Bond in cinema begins a decade earlier, with a flamboyant, Russian-born Hollywood director named Gregory Ratoff.
Suddenly, Feldman was sitting on a goldmine. But he couldn’t make a "real" Bond film (Eon Productions owned the rest of Fleming’s library). So he made the insane, glorious, star-studded 1967 spoof Casino Royale —a movie so chaotic it features five directors, David Niven as an aging Bond, and a closing credits song by Herb Alpert.
The Forgotten Fixer: How Gregory Ratoff Won (Then Lost) the First James Bond Film Rights