After the release of Casino Royale in 2006, the James Bond film franchise was feeling fresh, cool, and confident. And so, just two years after the smash success of Daniel Craig’s debut as 007, a follow-up film was planned, which turned out to be a shaken and stirred kerfuffle that nearly derailed the entire 21st-century Bond comeback. Craig’s second Bond outing, Quantum of Solace is certainly few people's favorite film in the venerable spy franchise, but according to a new interview, it seems that if it weren’t for Daniel Craig, things could have been much worse.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter Podcast, Craig made it clear that several lines of dialogue he spoke on screen in Quantum of Solace were actually written by him on the fly. “I ended up writing a lot of that film, which I probably shouldn’t say,” Craig admitted in the new interview.
The fact that Craig’s second Bond movie was a tricky affair is hardly a secret. In the new interview, Craig refers to the movie as the “difficult second album,” and primarily cites the 2007 WGA writers’ strike as the biggest headache. The initial script was written as a direct follow-up to Casino Royale, and as such, was first penned by the screenwriting duo who made that film such a hit, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.
Just as Casino Royale had been rewritten by Paul Haggis, Quantum of Solace was scheduled for a rewrite from Haggis before production began. But, then the strike hit, and the movie began shooting without a complete script in hand. As many critics would note, it showed. Without Craig coming up with new dialogue on the fly, it's very likely the movie could have been much, much worse.
Related: Photos: All James Bond Actors, Through the Years
Unlike Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace did not borrow heavily from one of Ian Fleming’s original Bond books, but instead, simply lifted its title from a 1959 James Bond short story, first published in the US in Cosmopolitan. Unlike the film, the short story deals with Bond listening to a story told to him by another character, and reflecting on the amount of pain and suffering a person can take in life, and how to find comfort in the cruelty of life. But, for Daniel Craig, there was little comfort in making the film, even if he was able to infuse his own personal taste and sense into the not-quite-there-script.
“We should never have started production,” Craig said. “That's a lesson—starting a movie without a script is not a good idea.”
As of this writing, the next James Bond film—the 26th in the official franchise—does not have a release date yet. The actor playing the next Bond, or who is writing this adventure, is also, for now, a mystery. As for Craig, he doesn't seem too concerned about his successor if his recent response is anything to judge by.
