Quantum of Solace
Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, and Joshua Zetumer contributed to the script. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it s an indefinably difficult task for an actor.Camille kills Medrano, and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil as a possible mean to commit suicide.
Forster chose her because out of the 400 women who auditioned, she seemed the least nervous. Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene, a leading member of Quantum posing as a businessman working in reforestation and charity funding for environmental science. This marked the first time the same actor played Leiter twice in a row.
Surprising them at Yusef s apartment, Bond tells Corinne about Vesper and advises her to alert her superiors. Bond walks off into the night telling M that he never left.
While observing her meeting with Greene, Bond learns that Greene is helping the Bolivian general Medrano – who murdered Camille s family – overthrow his government in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert. Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano s boat to sweeten their deal, but Bond rescues her. White in the luggage compartment of his car, Bond is attacked by chasing henchmen.
M then tells Bond that MI6 needs him back and fully reinstates him as an agent. With the captured Mr.
Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), and is assisted by Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), who is also seeking revenge. Producer Michael G. Bond s lack of emotion when he does exact revenge shows this to be the case. During filming, after the strike ended, Forster read a spec script by Joshua Zetumer, which he liked, and hired him to reshape scenes for the later parts of the shoot, which the director was still unsatisfied with. Quantum of Solace was shot in six countries, Shooting in Panama City began on 7 February 2008 at Howard Air Force Base.
In the film, Bond battles wealthy businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of the Quantum organisation posing as an environmentalist who intends to stage a coup d état in Bolivia to take control of the nation s water supply. The title was chosen from a 1960 short story in Ian Fleming s For Your Eyes Only, though the film does not contain any elements of the original story.
M s bodyguard, Mitchell, is revealed as a double agent and a traitor, attacking M and allowing White to escape; Bond chases Mitchell across Siena and kills him. In this film the gun barrel sequence was moved to the end of the movie, which Wilson explained was done for a surprise, Quantum of Solace was the last in Ford Motor s three-film deal that began with 2002 s Die Another Day.
As Bond lifts Mathis out of the vehicle, the policemen open fire and fatally wound Mathis, who dies in Bond s arms. As Bond is leaving Yusef s apartment he is confronted by M, who is surprised that Bond did not kill Yusef, but rather left him alive for questioning.
Bond travels to Talamone, a small Italian town in Maremma, to reunite with his old ally René Mathis. Bond disobeys and seduces her in their hotel suite. Bond meets Camille again at a fund-raiser being held by Greene, and they leave hastily together, but are pulled over by the Bolivian police.
Jasper Conran designed Camille s casual clothes and gold necklace, while Chrome Hearts designed gothic jewellery for Amalric s character, which the actor liked enough to keep after filming. The film returns to the traditional gun barrel opening shot, which was altered into part of the story for Casino Royale where it was moved to the end of the title sequence. He said that Forster likes to work very closely with his composers and that, in comparison to the accelerated schedule he was tied to on Casino Royale, the intention was to spend a long time scoring the film to really work it out. He also said he would be taking a different approach with the score. Jack White of The White Stripes and Alicia Keys collaborated on Another Way to Die, the first Bond music duet. The film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 29 October 2008.
The sequence, where Bond stalks the villains during a performance of Tosca, required 1500 extras. Production designer Peter Lamont, a crew member on eighteen previous Bond films, retired after Casino Royale. Louise Frogley replaced Lindy Hemming as costume designer, though Hemming remained as supervisor. Wilson. In June 2007, Marc Forster was confirmed as director. Haggis, Forster and Wilson rewrote the story from scratch. Michael G.
This tribute issue of the upscale magazine also featured Giammarco s in-depth profile of 007 author Ian Fleming and the 46-year history of the James Bond films. The fire effects were supervised by Chris Corbould, and post-production MPC had to enhance the sequence by making the smoke look closer to the actors, so it would look more dangerous. David Arnold, who composed the scores for the previous four Bond films, returned for Quantum of Solace.
Yusef is a member of Quantum who seduces high-ranking women with valuable connections, getting them to give up government assets as ransom for himself in fake kidnappings where he is supposedly held hostage. SolidWorks, who provided the software used to design the camera, stated pilots for the first time can fly as aggressively as they dare without sacrificing the drama of the shot. The camera could turn 360 degrees and was shaped like a periscope. The Moving Picture Company created the climactic hotel sequence.
Only David Hedison had previously played the character twice, in Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989), but these performances were not consecutive. Anatole Taubman as Elvis, Greene s second-in-command. The Cigar Aficionado James Bond special edition became the magazine s biggest-selling issue around the world. Reviews for Quantum of Solace have been mixed to positive.
Throughout his review, he emphasised that James Bond is not an action hero, and also criticised the lack of a fantastical villainous lair and the Bond girls names not being double entendres. An article published by the Independent Film Channel speculates that the contrast between Quantum and Casino Royale s reception came about because the American mood had been lightened following the election of US President Barack Obama, and the emotional Bond who recognises his moral ambiguity had become inappropriate to audiences. Upon its opening in the UK, the film grossed £4.9 million ($8 million), breaking the record for the largest Friday opening (31 October 2008) in the UK. The following week, the film was playing in sixty countries. Prada provided the dresses for both Bond girls.
Bond doesn t volunteer any information on Greene, but tells M that she was right about Vesper. Pugh said the costumes aimed towards the 1960s feel, especially for Bond and Fields.
The duo return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and learns Quantum murdered Fields by drowning her naked in crude oil. Directed by Marc Forster, it features Daniel Craig s second performance as James Bond.
M reveals that Leiter has been promoted by the CIA, replacing Beam, and that Greene was found in the desert, dead with two bullets in the back of his skull and with motor oil in his stomach. As he leaves, he drops Vesper s necklace in the snow. Daniel Craig as James Bond.
A bodyguard of Guy Haines, an advisor to the British Prime Minister, is killed, and M, assuming Bond is the killer, has his passports and credit cards revoked. Princes William and Harry of Wales attended, and proceeds from the screening were donated to the charities Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion. After the first screening, Forster cut out a minute-long coda to the film s ending where Bond encounters Mr.
They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF.260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where they kiss before she departs. Bond goes to Kazan, Russia, where he confronts Vesper Lynd s former lover, Yusef Kabira.
After Bond subdues the police he deposits Mathis s body in a waste container, and takes money from his wallet stating that Mathis wouldn t care. Wilson.
Instead, Penguin Books released Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories which is a compilation of both Octopussy and The Living Daylights and For Your Eyes Only, both written by Ian Fleming. . Craig s physical training for his reprise of the role placed extra effort into running and boxing, to spare him the injuries he sustained on his stunts in the first film. Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes, a Russian-Bolivian agent with her own vendetta regarding Greene and Medrano.
Will this be the year that changes its fortunes? Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times, who praised the previous film, disliked Quantum of Solace. Following a forensic investigation into Mitchell s apartment back in London, Bond heads to Haiti to track down and kill Mitchell s contact, Edmund Slate.
However, only 32% of selected notable reviewers gave it a positive write-up, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Roger Moore, the third actor to play Bond in the films, continued to feel Craig was a damn good Bond but the film as a whole, there was a bit too much flash cutting Kim Newman of Empire gave it 4/5, remarking it was not bigger and better than Casino Royale, The Guardian gave a more positive review, rating it as 3/5 stars, and was particularly fond of Craig s performance, saying he made the part his own, every inch the coolly ruthless agent-killer, nursing a broken heart and coldly suppressed rage and calling the film a crash-bang Bond, high on action, low on quips, long on location glamour, short on product placement ; it concludes Quantum of Solace isn t as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig s Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. The country doubled for Haiti and Bolivia, with the National Institute of Culture of Panama standing in for a hotel in the latter country.
His name was chosen by Paul Haggis, David Harbour as Gregg Beam, the CIA Section Chief for South America and a contact of Felix Leiter. Joaquín Cosío as General Medrano, the exiled general whom Greene is helping to get back into power, in return for support of his organisation. Although Ford sold over 90% of the Aston Martin company in 2007, the Aston Martin DBS V12 returned for the film s car chase around Lake Garda; Fourteen cameras were used to film the Palio di Siena, footage which was later edited into the main sequence.
White, whom Bond captured after he stole the money won at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, M s aide. Tim Pigott-Smith as the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Neil Jackson as Edmund Slate, a henchman who fights Bond in Haiti. Simon Kassianides as Yusef, who has a confrontation with Bond in Kazan towards the end of the film. Stana Katic as Corrine Veneau, a Canadian Intelligence Service agent. Glenn Foster as Craig Mitchell, M s bodyguard and a double agent. Directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón are friends of Marc Forster and while filming he asked them to cameo, providing voices in the Spanish language. He is attempting to do the same with Canadian agent Corinne Veneau, even giving her the same kind of necklace he gave Vesper.
He wrote that the plot was mediocre, characters weak and that Bond lacked his usual personality, despite his praise for Craig s interpretation of the role. The police order Bond to open the luggage compartment of his vehicle, revealing a bloodied Mathis.
Taking a course away from the usual Bond villains, Forster rejected any grotesque appearance for the character Dominic Greene to emphasise the hidden and secret nature of the film s contemporary villains. The film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 29 October 2008, gathering mixed reviews which mainly praised Craig s gritty performance and the film s action sequences while feeling that Quantum of Solace was not as impressive as the predecessor Casino Royale. And the ongoing shift of M, as played by Judi Dench, to front and centre: the Bond girls fade into insignificance as she becomes his moral counterpoint and theirs is the only real relationship on screen. The review continues, Bond is, as has been previously noted, practically the Martin Scorsese of the BAFTAs: 22 films later, with grosses probably close to the GDP of one of the small nations it depicts, it s still waiting for that Alexander Korda award.
The director left it out to give the next film s director a chance to tell his own story, as including the scene would have forced them to make Bond 23 another direct sequel. Returning product placement partners from Casino Royale included Ford, Heineken Pilsener, Smirnoff, Omega SA, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Sony Ericsson. Corgi International Limited made 5-inch action figures and gadgets (such as a voice-activated briefcase), as well as their traditional die-cast toy vehicles. Though there was no novelisation despite its original storyline, Penguin Books published a compilation of Fleming s short stories entitled Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories, with a UK release date of 29 May 2008 The book combines the contents of Fleming s two short story collections, For Your Eyes Only—including the original Quantum of Solace short story—and Octopussy and The Living Daylights. The November/December 2008 issue of Cigar Aficionado was a special James Bond edition written by David Giammarco, noted author of For Your Eyes Only: Behind the Scenes of the James Bond Films, and featured an extensive 20-page feature on the making of Quantum of Solace from his exclusive interviews on location with Daniel Craig, Gemma Arterton, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, director Marc Forster, and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson developed the film s plot while Casino Royale was being shot.
Hemming hired Brioni for Bond s suits since her tenure on the series began with 1995 s GoldenEye, but Lindsay Pugh, another supervisor, explained their suits were too relaxed. Tom Ford was hired to tailor sharper suits for Craig. Amalric acknowledged taking the role was an easy decision because, It s impossible to say to your kids that I could have been in a Bond film but I refused. Judi Dench as M.
Tipped off by Leiter, Bond evades American special forces attempting to kill him. He is responsible for the murder of Camille s entire family when she was a young girl. Jesper Christensen as Mr.
Bond and Camille drive to Greene s intended land acquisition and survey the area in a Douglas DC-3 plane. At the DVD sales chart the film opened at #3, grossing $21,894,957 from 1.21m DVD units sold. Like Casino Royale, no book adaptation of the movie was released despite having no relations with the short story except for its title.
Forster felt Dench was underused in the previous films and wanted to make her part bigger, having her interact with Bond more because she is the only woman Bond doesn’t see in a sexual context, which Forster finds interesting. Giancarlo Giannini as René Mathis, Bond s ally who was mistakenly believed to be a traitor in Casino Royale. Bond infiltrates Quantum s meeting at the opera, and a gunfight ensues in a restaurant.
Montes asks Bond to let me know what it feels like when he succeeds, the implication of the title being that it will be a small amount of solace compared to his despair. Location filming took place in Panama, Chile, Italy, and Austria while interior sets were built and watched at Pinewood Studios.
It is also the second highest grossing James Bond film, without adjusting for inflation, making $586,090,727 worldwide, while becoming the higher grossing Bond film domestically. The film continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale with Bond driving from Lake Como to Siena, Italy. A sequence requiring several hundred extras was also shot at nearby Colón. While filming in Sierra Gorda, Chile, the local mayor, Carlos Lopez, staged a protest because he was angry at the filmmakers portraying the Antofagasta region as part of Bolivia, when Chile conquered it in 1883.
Having been acquitted, he chooses to aid Bond again. Gemma Arterton as MI6 Agent Strawberry Fields, who works at the British consulate in Bolivia. Forster found Arterton a witty actress and selected her from 7000 candidates.
Not knowing that their chief was working with Medrano, the policemen had beaten Mathis and put him in the trunk of Bond s car. After evading his pursuers, Bond and M interrogate White regarding his organisation, Quantum.
In carrying out his objective, Bond learns that Slate was sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, Dominic Greene, the chairman of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. EON dismissed his claim that they needed his permission to film in the area. From 4–12 April, the main unit shot on Sienese rooftops. Filming took place at the floating opera stage at Bregenz, Austria from 28 April–9 May 2008.
Bond executes the departing Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions in the hotel when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. Cuarón appears as a Bolivian helicopter pilot, while del Toro provides several other voices. In July 2006, as Casino Royale entered post-production, EON Productions announced that the next film would be based on an original idea by producer Michael G.
It grossed the equivalent of .3 million in the UK, .5 million in France and .7 million in Germany on 7 November 2008. The film grossed $27 million on its opening day in 3,451 theatres in Canada and the United States, where it was the #1 film for the weekend, with .5 million and ,568 average per theatre. The film was nominated for Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Visual Effects, Film and Sound Editing at the 2008 Satellite Awards, winning Best Song. Quantum of Solace was released by Sony Pictures entertainment DVD and Blu-ray in Australia, the UK and North America from 18 to 24 March 2009. Forster aimed to make a modern film that also featured classic cinema motifs: a vintage aeroplane was used for a dogfight sequence, and Dennis Gassner s set designs are reminiscent of Ken Adam s work on several early Bond films.
Bond then follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to a performance of Tosca at Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria; en route, CIA agent Gregg Beam strikes a non-interference deal with Greene, overruling the objections of Felix Leiter. White again.
While escaping the cave, Bond and Camille discover Quantum is blockading Bolivia s supply of fresh water, normally flowing in subterranean rivers, by damming it to double the price of water. Bond then sets out to the hotel where Greene and Medrano make the change in the Bolivian leadership.
The best Casino Royale could achieve was a gong for sound. The character s first name, which is a reference to the Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever, is never actually uttered on screen; when Bond asks her for her name, she replies, Just Fields. Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Bond s ally at the CIA.
Believing that Bond has become a threat to both friend and foe, M orders him to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia, but he defies her and escapes. Bond meets CIA agent Felix Leiter at a local bar, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet at an eco-hotel in the Bolivian desert. They escape from the crippled plane by parachuting, landing in a sinkhole.
Wilson decided on the film s title Quantum of Solace only a few days before its announcement on 24 January 2008. Craig measures up. Screen Daily says Notices will focus - rightly - on Craig s magnetism as the steely, sexy, murderous MI6 agent, but two other factors weigh in and freshen up proceedings: Forster s new technical team, led by cinematographer Roberto Schaefer and production designer Dennis Gassner.
Near the end of the film, the Camille Montes character and Bond have a discussion about their individual quests to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Of the 238 reviews listed on Rotten Tomatoes, 65% are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10.
Though less than happy to see Bond, Mathis is convinced to accompany him to La Paz. Aerial shots using helicopters were banned, and the crew were also forbidden from showing any violence involving either people or animals. To film the aerial dogfight, a Snakehead camera was built and placed on the nose and tail of a Piper Aerostar 700.
They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate, who demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight. He was arrested, detained briefly, and put on trial two days later.
Quantum of Solace (2008) is the 22nd James Bond film by EON Productions and is the direct sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale.
