Quentin Tarantino had his eyes on “Casino Royale” ever since the completion of “Pulp Fiction,” but the notion that the story was unfilmable led many to doubt the project. At the time, it was the only “Bond” story that the Broccolis didn’t have any claim to, and the “Django Unchained” filmmaker wanted to sneakily acquire the rights. According to Tarantino, however, they swooped in before he could make his move (via Deadline):
“So they did a thing with Ian Fleming’s estate and they go, ‘Look, we’re buying the rights to everything that Ian Fleming has his name on. So nobody can do what this Tarantino character is trying to do or what this Tarantino character is going to try to do a couple years from now.’ It’s like, if I want to make a movie out of his travelogue ‘Thrilling Cities,’ I’m going to have to get the Broccolis onboard, because they bought the movie rights to ‘Thrilling Cities.'”
It’s safe to say that the Broccolis gaining the rights to “Casino Royale” killed Tarantino’s chances at adapting the story, especially since the folks at Eon Productions didn’t have any interest in his adaptation moving forward with them. It wasn’t long afterward that “Goldeneye” director Martin Campbell would be hired for what would become Daniel Craig’s inaugural outing as Bond. The Broccolis are very protective of the 007 brand, after all, and Tarantino’s treatment would have taken the character in some fascinating new directions.