The Making of Casino Royale

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Meanwhile, French actress Eva Green plays Treasury official Vesper Lynd, the woman Bond loses his heart to. Both ladies were drawn to their roles primarily because they weren't playing the kind of stereotypes one is used to seeing in most Bond movies.

"I really fell in love with the character when I read the script. I thought that the character of Vesper was very funny and very romantic. It is also very unusual and beautiful. She starts off as somebody on her guard, reserved and later opens up and falls in love and shows a lot of sensitivity," says Green.

Comparing the earlier Bond films with Casino Royale, Murino says, "I think the earlier movie was chauvanistic. Now, everything has changed. I think now the young generations of women will be huge fan of Bond."

For the role of Bond's nemesis, Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's biggest terrorists, the producers cast Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who invites Bond to a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale.

In one of the film's particularly disturbing scenes, Le Chiffre tortures a naked Bond by strapping him to a chair whose seat has been ripped off, and by whipping his underside.

The actors in the film admit Casino Royale is more violent and more bloody than previous Bond films, but there's an upside to that, they insist.

"If you want people to believe what they see, you have to go that way because you can get more bloody; it is not in the documentary style. The energy is more brutal and if you do violence, it is important that you show the horror of violence," says Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Le Chiffre.

Green says depicting violence in the film is important as it "shows that he is a secret agent". The character, she says, "is more physical and realistic".

With close to $140 million at stake, the fate of Daniel Craig as Bond, and the box-office performance of Casino Royale seem inter-related. The question is, can Daniel Craig succeed in making James Bond cool again after almost 40 years?