The James Bond parody Casino Royale with Orson Welles as the villainous Le Chiffre will be released on Blu-ray in Great Britain.
Final Cut Entertainment is set to release the disc on November 15.
In the 1967 film, David Niven stars as the British spy, now retired and living a peaceful existence. Bond is called back into duty when the mysterious organization SMERSH begins assassinating British secret agents. The Casino Royale cast includes Welles, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen.
There were reports Sellers felt intimidated by Welles and save for few shots, neither was in the studio simultaneously. Sellers left the production before all of his scenes had been shot.
The film received generally poor reviews, though it did well at the box office, something Welles once attributed to a marketing campaign that featured a naked tattooed woman on posters and print ads. Burt Bacharach’s score got high marks, earning him an Academy Award nomination for the song “The Look of Love.”
No word yet as to whether this Blu-ray will be region free.
A U.S. Blu-ray released by Fox Home Video in 2012 is now out of print.
Long before Sean Connery starred in Dr. No, Bond was first played by Barry Nelson in a 1954 television production of Casino Royale with Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre.
Eon Productions, owners of the popular 007 film franchise, gained the rights to Casino Royale in 1999 and produced a more traditional Bond film with Daniel Craig in 2006.
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