The second half follows Fleming's original novel, but features several changes. The film's first half, which shows how Bond earned his 00 status and tracked down Le Chiffre, was written directly for the screen. Along the way, Bond gets tortured and falls in love with Vesper Lynd. In this film, adapted from the novel (moving its setting from the 1950s to the present day and from France to the newly-independent Montenegro), Bond must essentially win a high-stakes game of Poker against a terrorist financier known only as Le Chiffre. With the 21st film in the franchise, the EON production team essentially rebooted the continuity of the Bond series and started over with Bond acquiring his license to kill (due to Comic Book Time however, it is still officially part of the same series).

Ian Fleming sold the rights to his first James Bond novel separately from the rest of the films, which is the reason that it took so long for a proper adaptation of the first novel. 'So you want me to be half monk, half hitman.'

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