Why The Quantum Of Solace Script Was Not Up To Scratch

Like many big budget films the scripts for the James Bond films go through many drafts and can involve a whole string of writers. For the more recent Bond films Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been involved with writing early drafts, with the scripts polished by other writers later on for the shooting script.

That process was followed for the 2006 film Casino Royale, which was polished by Paul Haggis, the well-known Canadian screenwriter and director of Crash. He worked on the early draft of the screenplay and rounded out the plot and polished dialogue to give us the film that was such a smash on release in 2006.

When the follow up was announced the writer Haggis was once again asked to provide the polished draft of the script. However, although he did work on the script he had a tight deadline, as a fast-approaching writers strike would mean he would no longer work on it.

The result was a half finished script that was a compromise. In fact Daniel Craig has gone on record recently as saying Quantum of Solace was never intended to be such a close sequel to Casino Royale, but their had was forced by the writers strike.

He and director Marc Forster were the only members of cast and crew that were allowed to work on the script and it was very much a work in progress as shooting was underway. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Forster chose to shoot and edit the film so that it raced along - like a bullet, he said; and perhaps it is also why it is the shortest ever Bond film.

The plot of Quantum of Solace is rather uninspiring, concerning the control of Bolivia's water supply. Small fry for a film series that has regularly feature megalomaniac villains bent on world domination, however current lack of water may be in the news. It ties in Casino Royale by having Bond go after the organisation from that film, which we learn is called Quantum. It also ties up some strands of the love affair between James Bond and Vesper Lynd in that first film, with Bond going out for revenge for the woman with whom he fell in love.

While not a completely terrible film, the result universally disappointed audiences, who had great expectations after the triumph that was Casino Royale. Next year's "Skyfall" will mark a four year break since the previous film and Bond fans around the world are hoping that this time they get it right - they've certainly had time to do so.

By: Nellie Rider

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Would-be Bond girls might like to check out a necklace inspired by the Algerian love knot from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.