Royale Pains

So Casino Royale, or as everyone will no doubt be calling it, Bond Begins, now has a cast;

James Bond: Daniel Craig
Le Chiffre: Mads Mikkelsen
Vesper Lynd: Eva Green
Felix Leiter: Jeffrey Wright

Casting actors who haven't been over-exposed around the world (though Mikkelsen is a star in his native Denmark) is a strategy that harks back to Dr. No, which cast relatively little-known people who would go on to hit it big like Sean Connery, Ursula Andress and Jack Lord. Also, assembling an international cast (Danish villain, French leading lady) is a nice throwback to the international casts of the '60s Bonds; I was tired of all the British-accented villains.

Speaking of Casino Royale, Howard Hawks at one point considered making a film of the novel with Cary Grant as Bond. This page speculates on what a Hawks version of Bond might have been like.