A long-established rule of the Broccoli family, which controls the James Bond franchise, is that 007 must be played by a British actor and that every film must be from a British director. While that tradition eventually changed with “No Time to Die,” directed by American filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga, it kept non-British filmmakers interested in the series from directing an episode for decades. Among them was Tarantino, who made a serious bid to direct a Bond film in 2004.

Tarantino wanted to adapt Ian Fleming’s debut novel “Casino Royale”, which at the time had only been brought to the screen as a parody film produced outside the EON label. Tarantino intended to bring back Pierce Brosnan, but wanted to change the tone of his Bond run. While Brosnan’s debut in “GoldEneye” is a brilliant reintroduction of the character, and “Tomorrow Never Dies” is a respectable second entry, his last two films, “The World Is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day,” descend in the -top campiness. Tarantino wanted to take 007 back to the grainy roots of Fleming’s novels and tell a story on a smaller scale.

Brosnan was excited about the idea and even approached the Broccolis, but they weren’t fans of Tarantino’s pitch and then decided to remove Brosnan from the role. Ironically, Tarantino’s description is quite similar to what the next Bond film looked like, as Daniel Craig’s “Casino Royale” debut was a darker origin story.