After losing Casino Royale, Quentin Tarantino once planned his own rival British spy movie. Outside of Jackie Brown - which adapted Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch - Tarantino has only directed scripts based on his own original ideas. Over the years, he's mulled taking on famous franchises, with his failed Star Trek movie one of the most recent examples.
Another was Tarantino's failed attempt to adapt Casino Royale in the early 2000s. As EON productions never held the rights to Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel Casino Royale, they were unable to adapt it. The book was turned into a terrible spoof in the late '60then-Bondferent production company, however. After finishing the Kill Bill duology, Tarantino expressed his interest in casting then- Bond star Pierce Brosnan in a '60s set Casino Royale. He sought to do a faithful adaptation of the book, possibly with Uma Thurman as Vesper Lynn.
Towards the end of 2004, Tarantino's Casino Royale hopes were dashed. Brosnan was dropped from the 007 role, and confirmed producers rejected the Tarantino pitch. Casino Royale did prove to be the next adventure and kicked off Daniel Craig's James Bond movie run. In the aftermath, Tarantino was openly frustrated with the move, claiming the producers essentially stole his idea to do the film and that he hadn't watched the 2006 film as a result. He also expressed interest in making his own rival spy movie, adapting Len Deighton's Game, Set & Match book trilogy.
Why Tarantino's Samson Movies Didn't Happen
The first novel Berlin Game was published in 1983 and followed MI6 agent Bernard Samson, who is ordered to rescue an undercover agent from behind the Iron Curtain. He also has to worry about one of his colleagues - including his wife - being a potential double agent. Game, Set & Match was previously adapted for British TV in 1988, with Samson played by the late, great Ian Holm. Speaking with Sight & Sound (via Dark Horizons), Tarantino - who also wanted to remake Rambo's debut First Blood - outlined his interest in the trilogy and plans to adapt the three books into one film.
The director stated, "It would be interesting if I could reduce the three novels to an hour each and make a three-hour movie that would have a big kind of impact, just by responding to the characters, and the wonderful chance of casting actors in it, and the nice environment of the drawing room and the cottages in this part of East Berlin, with the Wall still there and everything.” In other interviews, QT mentioned some of the actors he would like to cast, including Simon Pegg, Kate Winslet and Michael Caine.
The latter would be especially apt, as Caine starred played Harry Palmer in adaptations of Len Deighton's books. Proof of Tarantino's fandom for Deighton's work can further be found in Jackie Brown, where Robert Forster's character is seen reading Berlin Game. A Tarantino Game, Set & Match adaptation would have shown his unique take on a Cold War spy saga and would have been undoubtedly more grounded than 2006's Casino Royale - which has been adapted three times. Like many of his mooted projects, it appears Tarantino lost interest in Game, Set & Match adaptation over time and decided to focus on his own original concepts.