Here’s how movies get made sometimes: Actor Daniel Craig was at a party in New York City. He had knocked back a few drinks and was feeling a bit buzzed when he spotted his friend and fellow Brit Sam Mendes, who had directed him in 2002’s Road to Perdition.

“Sam had just gotten there and was completely sober, and I wasn’t,” Craig recalls. “We got to talking about movies, and he told me how much he had enjoyed Casino Royale. And suddenly I found myself telling him how great he would be if we made another one, and would he want to direct it? I went above and beyond my job as an actor, but the offer just came out anyway.”

Mendes, Oscar-winning director of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, indulged his tipsy friend. “I said ‘Of course!’ in a kind of jovial, sure-thing-buddy! kind of way. To be honest, I had never thought about the Bond series seriously before. But then I went home and started thinking about it. I had been wanting to go back to England and make an English film and work with Judi Dench again. I had been wanting to shock myself out of the things I had gotten used to doing and try my hand at action. If I hadn’t gone to that party, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. But suddenly it seemed like a great idea.”

The only catch? Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the keepers of the 007 screen rights, were the only ones with the authority to hire a director.

“Daniel called me a day later a bit shame-faced,” Mendes says. “He said ‘You remember what I said to you the other night? I’m not sure I’m entitled to offer you that job. But would you like to meet Barbara and Michael?’ ”

The deal moved quickly. Broccoli and Wilson brought their usual squad of stunt men and action choreographers and assistant cameramen. Mendes handpicked cinematographer Roger Deakins ( No Country For Old Men), composer Thomas Newman and production designer Dennis Gassner. Everyone collaborated on the casting of new characters, which included Ben Whishaw ( Cloud Atlas) as a younger incarnation of the gadget-guru Q, Ralph Fiennes as a not-entirely-trustworthy British government honcho and Javier Bardem as the bleached-blond, ambisexual Silva — a villain who, unlike most other Bond bad guys, has more personal motives than taking over the world.

Mendes is the primary reason why Skyfall (which also features Albert Finney in a small but critical role) has the starriest of any Bond cast to date.

“I called Ralph to talk about being in a Bond movie, but he didn’t sound that excited,” Mendes says. “When we had lunch, he told me he assumed I wanted him to play the villain, and he had just spent a decade playing Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies. But once I told him who I had him in mind for, he was thrilled.

“Javier was a little trickier. He said ‘I love the idea, I love the cast and I love your work. But I’m not sure about the role yet. Can we talk?’ A lot of what you see of Silva onscreen came from rehearsals and screen tests. Javier is such a remarkably playful actor. He loves to experiment with the way he looks and moves and talks. He doesn’t take any detail for granted. This is the first movie I’ve made in my career where all my first choices said yes. I wanted to have a true high-level ensemble, unlike any you’ve seen in a Bond movie.”