Cardiff Giant11

Noticed the BluRay collectors edition (the newer BluRay release with the dark cover) of Casino Royale is available at Amazon for 15.99. I ordered it the other day when it was 16.49 and it's since dropped another fifty cents.

Seems like a great price for the Collectors Edition release since it's about $25+ everywhere else I've seen.

JckRbbitSlim

It was $14.99 at FYE recently, which I guess is about the same with tax thrown in. Great disc.

TheBang

It's been $14.96 at Walmart for a few months now.

Cardiff Giant11

Good to know, the only places I'd looked for it both online and B&M still wanted around 24-28 bucks for it so I guess I was just looking at the wrong places before!

Quake1028

It's been as low as $11.99 I believe, but that was almost a year ago.

Kory

It was $10 at Walmart on the most recent Black Friday. Other than that, yeah it's been $14.96 at Walmart since at least a couple of months BEFORE last Black Friday.

Cardiff Giant11

Thanks for the info guys, had no idea it was that cheap normally. I'm still happy with it at $16.50

drq2

Any idea or can anyone tell me if there is anything special about this other then the color of the case?

zekeburger1979

From HiDefDigest's review:

New Featurettes (HD, 24 minutes) - New to this Blu-ray are five featurettes, though they are obviously one doc cut up into different parts. A host of principals (director Campbell, producers Wilson and Broccoli and Callum McDougall, co-screenwriters Paul Haggis and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, Bond historian John Cork, authors John Pearson and Peter Biskind, and even early Bond girls Linda Christian Power, Diane Hartford, and Maureen O'Connell. Presented in 1080p/MPEG-2 HD, this is not quite the ultimate documentary on 'Casino Royale,' but certainly close to what we all wanted on the first 'Casino Royale' Blu-ray.

First up is "The Road to Casino Royale" (28 minutes), which goes all the way back to Ian Fleming's original story and chronicles the long, long journey it took to make it to the screen as Bond 21. There is some cool footage of early Bond misfires (including Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond"), lots of rare stills and archival materials, and a big detour into the famous Kevin McClory 'Thunderball' controversy. A very thorough dossier.

"Ian Fleming's Incredible Creation" (21 minutes) goes in-depth into the 'Casino Royale' story itself, and dissects the modern day adaptation. Dubbed the "holy grail" of Bond novels by Broccoli, the challenge for the filmmakers was retaining the basic structure of a novel that revolves around a poker game, while also updating it for modern times, and somehow facilitating a satisfactory reboot for the entire franchise. Fleming's background and literary influences for Bond are also discussed at length.

Next is "Bond in the Bahamas" (24 minutes), which tackles the location where a good portion of 'Casino Royale' takes place. Though this comes off a bit too much like a Bahamas advert at times (and it's odd this location gets so much attention while many of the others in the film are left unexplored), this is where the grit of the production detail is covered. Also fun here is a look back at the other Bond films that exploited the Bahamas, including 'The Spy Who Loved Me,' 'For Your Eyes Only' and 'Thunderball,' and how they link to 'Casino Royale.'

"Ian Fleming: The Secret Road to Paradise" (24 minutes) is the only feature that feels like a bit of padding. Once again, the Fleming/Bahamas connection is discussed ad nauseam. A host of additional socialites and other well-to-do types are interviewed, who give us context of the social scene that Fleming found himself surround by when the first conceived and wrote the early Bond novels. Unfortunately, most of this material could have been combined with "Bond in the Bahamas" to much better effect.

Finally, "Death in Venice" (23 minutes), which is the only featurette that really features any interviews with Daniel Craig and Eva Green (both culled from on-set material). The film's final sequence featuring the sinking Palazzo is documented, though for me it might be one of the weakest aspects of 'Casino Royale.' A great deal of exposition and plot development culminates in the scene, which was -- judging by the extensive production footage here -- a logistical nightmare.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 8 minutes) - There are four scenes new to the 'Collector's Edition,' all in 1080p/MPEG-2 video: "Rescue and Recovery," "Squandering Government Funds," "Cricket Pavilion" and "Gettler Raisers Bond's Suspicions." None of these scenes are tremendous, but there is a nice moment between Bond and Vesper and a decent joke in he "Government Funds" clip. The quality of the scenes is good, if close (but not quite) up to the main feature.

Throwing quite a big bone to us Blu-ray'ers, Sony has produced a couple of nifty exclusives for this 'Casino Royale' double-dip.

* Picture-in-Picture - Bond finally gets his first Blu-ray PIP track, here dubbed a "Visual Commentary." Less a digest version of the documentary features, this is essentially a sit-down filmed chat with director Martin Campbell and producer Michael G. Wilson. The plusses are that as this set has no proper audio commentary with Campbell this makes the perfect replacement, though there is considerable overlap in terms of information here and that imparted in all the documentaries and featurettes. Such redundancy is probably unavoidable, but would have been helped had there been any integration of making-of and/or supporting interview footage. That makes this PIP a bit on the dry side. (Note that this PIP track is Bonus View-enabled, so you must have a Profile 1.1-capable player to access it.)
* "Know Your Double -O:The Ultimate James Bond Trivia Quiz" - This is a single- or two-player quiz that asks up to 20 random questions quiz on the entire Bond series, from 'Dr. No' to 'Casino Royale.' I'm a Bond fan, but by no means an expert, and I answered about 70 percent of the questions correct. I suspect that like most trivia games, it's really the more casual fan who will enjoy it the most.
* BD-Live - Finally, Sony has enabled 'Casino Royale' with BD-Live functionality. At presstime, only a basic Sony online destination page is running, with trailers for other Sony titles, plus a link to online James Bond sites.