Visimag.com Film Bytes - Quantum of Solace

< Visimag.com Film Bytes - Quantum of Solace


















SEARCH for your own topics
	Readers in USA click here

	Elsewhere click here
Image copyright: see contents page of each issue. All other material © Visual Imagination 1998 - 2008

Look out for more coverage of
Quantum of Solace in our magazines

THE MOVIE: Quantum of Solace
THE STARS: Daniel Craig • Olga Kurylenko • Judi Dench DIRECTOR: Marc Forster THE CONCEPT: Sequel to Casino Royale: Fueled by the betrayal of Vesper, the woman he loved, James Bond’s determination to track down the mastermind that has led to her death, proves that nobody can be trusted. With the British government and the CIA working against him, Bond must kill or be killed on his mission to uncover the truth and destroy ‘Quantum.’
U.S. RELEASE: November 14 2008, Nationwide • Rated: PG-13
THE COMMENTS:
DANIEL CRAIG: “Both Marc and I were big fans of the early Bonds, but also the movies that they spawned in the Sixties, because they had a direct effect on movies all over. One of the biggest things that the early Bond movies did was go on location. That was unusual at the time. If they were Hollywood movies, they were shot on the back lot, and they were created sets and beautifully done. But Bond was in Japan, and that’s what we wanted to make happen in this movie, that you were transported to these places. Plus, we were trying to add some of the style and mood that they developed back then, even though there’s reality in this and everybody will be saying, ‘Oh it’s grittier,’ I think it’s a very stylized Bond and I like the fact that it has a look back to [the early films].” MARC FORSTER: “I wanted to approach the film as if I was making the Bond movie I would like to see. What was interesting for me was to do a sequel. In the last five minutes of Casino Royale Bond loses the love of his life and he’s in this emotional state, and I felt to continue that state in Quantum of Solace would be a good thing instead of starting him out fresh, [where] Bond feels no attachment. He forgot the girl he loves, and now where’s the next girl I can be with?” OLGA KURYLENKO (Camille): “I did three auditions altogether. With the first one, I didn’t feel pressured because I got there and I had the wrong text, so I thought, ‘Okay, this is not happening.’ There were a few people auditioning before me, so I let them while I tried to memorized the text, but I couldn’t remember the whole thing so I half-improvised. Marc did the second audition, and I got called back for the third one at Pinewood Studios and that’s when I first met Daniel. I waited for about three weeks and I got the answer.” CRAIG: “We learned a huge amount when we did Casino Royale, certainly I did, and the stunt team that I worked with did, about how much I can do and what’s the limit. I think we’re getting better at making it look like it’s me. And I’ve got four or five guys who work really close with me who have incredible fighting skills, gymnasts, acrobats, and they’re all quite similar to me. If I can get my face in there in that key moment, and not pull the audience out, that’s all I want. I don’t want the audience to be watching an action sequence and then suddenly go, ‘Oh, that’s not him.’ And there are moments if you play it really slowly you’ll be able to find it, but hopefully they’re few and far between.” FORSTER: “There were challenges because I had this idea I wanted to do four actions sequences and four elements – water, fire, air, earth. And so every time you work with the elements, you put your actors into fire, it’s gets very hot, you put them into water, you have the wind, the waves. It’s hard and dangerous. I think the hardest one for me to actually push through, because of different reasons, was on the rooftops of Sienna. Originally the rooftops were supposed to be built in Pinewood and we couldn’t afford it, so they said we’ll just cut the rooftops. I said, ‘No, why don’t we ask Sienna if we can shoot on the real rooftops.’ So the city allowed us, and the engineers had to look at the weight of the buildings, as Daniel flies from one rooftop to the other side where the balconies are – all that was in the real location.” KURYLENKO: “The racing boat sequence was the scariest. That was the most difficult and the most breathtaking. It was like being on a rollercoaster. It was really emotional because it was going so fast. It was all for real.” CRAIG on challenge of doing the fire sequence: “I felt trepidation but genuinely it’s about getting it right, because I only want to do it once. With the fire sequence, we went to a fire testing facility, and we basically went in there with fire suits on, and just got as close as we could, just to get us used to the heat. And then you’re plastered all over your body in this flame retardant which is a gel. At some point I had plastic hands on, because I’m smashing through things, and there are guys with fire extinguishers [pointed at me]. You hope for the best. We would plot it out really carefully, and all I cared about when we’d go for the take was doing it once. I didn’t want to do the jumping out of the window more than once, but after the third time it actually got quite fun, sick when that happens!” FORSTER: “The main thing I wanted to concentrate on was the character, and how could I make this my own within that Bond framework? It’s all about Bond. I felt because he’d lost the love of his life in the last one, the Bond girl should be a mirror to him and have in a sense her own revenge motives. And because of that mirror, we can get an emotional response out of Bond.” KURYLENKO: “I was very happy and proud that Camille didn’t sleep with Bond. He slept with all [the girls] in twenty-one movies. Here is a change. But he was behaving well, so I gave him a kiss. Daniel is a very good actor and he’s very professional. He was very encouraging when we did all the stunt scenes. He said, ‘When you watch the movie you’ll be so happy you did this.’” CRAIG on where he’d like to see Bond go next: “A beach, [he laughs], for about an hour and a half in the movie, then about 10 minutes of action. That would really, really thrill me.”
Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top Visit the official Quantum of Solace site Images above © Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures & Columbia Pictures – Sony Pictures Release Feature © 2008 Visual Imagination. Not for reproduction.