The name's Solace. Quantum of Solace.
Producers of the forthcoming James Bond flick have confirmed that the next installment of the action franchise, long referred to simply as Bond 22, has at long last settled on the title Quantum of Solace. The name was taken from For Your Eyes Only, a collection of short stories published by superspy creator Ian Fleming in 1960.
The title, as well as a few new plot details, was unveiled during a press conference at England's Pinewood Studios Thursday, where the Daniel Craig-starring film began filming earlier this month. Production on the eagerly anticipated flick kicked off last November.
While the film's producers said they had only settled on the title a few days ago, rumors had been circulating that the slightly bewildering—and, per an already large contingent of the franchise's fans, underwhelming—title would be the final one after Sony quietly purchased the domain name www.quantumofsolace.com.
Disappointed fans may find their own small quantums of solace, as it were, in other ultimately cast-aside title possibilities: The only unused titles remaining from For Your Eyes Only were Risico and The Hildebrand Rarity.
Not quite the same ring as GoldenEye, License to Kill or Octopussy, but as Craig said at the press conference, that's not the point.
"It doesn't trip off the tongue. But why should it? We could have gone for a snappier title, but that's not part of the deal," he said. "It ties into the plot...It's not some random title."
As for the plot, which has until now been kept under typically tight wraps, coproducer Michael Wilson said it would borrow nothing from the short story from whence its title came (in which Bond is relegated to a background role while attending a boring dinner party in Nassau), rather it would be more of a straight-forward sequel to Casino Royale and would start up "literally an hour after the last film left off."
Incidentally, that would be with a brokenhearted Bond, still reeling from his encounter with Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, who betrayed him before seemingly dying. This time around, while aiming to discover the truth about the raven beauty, 007 learns his former love had been blackmailed into deceiving him and subsequently embarks on a mission of revenge that takes him to Italy, Austria and South America.
Not that Bond will be moping after Lynd for the duration of the flick. Craig said that his iconic spy would be "misbehaving more this time" and that fans shouldn't expect a repeat of Casino Royale's leg-crossing torture scene as "Bond's dealing it out more this time."
As previously announced, French thesp Mathieu Amalric, who stars in the current Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, plays requisite Bond nemesis Dominic Greene, a shadowy businessman (is there any other kind?) attempting to gain a stronghold on the world's natural resources. He described his character as having "the smile of Tony Blair and the crazy eyes of Nicolas Sarkozy."
Ukranian actress Olga Kurylenko plays Bond girl Camille, who joins the spy on his mission of vengeance and who ultimately leads him to Greene. While Kurylenko has yet to film any scenes, she said she has been engaging in intensive weapons and flight training for upcoming stunt scenes.
"She's a fighter," she told reporters. "This girl is going to kick ass. She's on her own mission and she's driven by revenge."
British actress Gemma Arterton rounds out the new cast as MI6 Agent Fields, a character who shares a love scene with Bond, but whom Arterton nevertheless classifies as "fresh and young, not sultry and a femme fatale."
Returning to the film—her sixth Bond outing—as the enigmatic M is Judi Dench, who described her relationship with 007 this time around as "pretty prickly." Marc Forster has been charged with directing the would-be blockbuster, which will also feature the continued absence of Moneypenny and Q, characters who producers say will only make a reappearance when it is organic and if the story demands it.
As for whether or not Eva Green will have a return appearance in the flick, coproducer Barbara Broccoli said, "There are no flashbacks in the film, but she's certainly on Bond's mind."
Still, while revenge seemed to be the buzzword of the morning, Broccoli was quick to downplay the term as too definitive of the film.
"It is not a revenge movie," she said. "It's a lot more complicated than that. It has lots of action, but it also deals with the inner turmoil Bond is feeling."
Craig himself said the film would be "more of a classical Bond movie. There's a touch of Ken Adam [the franchise's production designer emeritus who specialized in villainous lairs] and '60s spy movies.'"
During the press conference, the assembled media was treated to a few brief scenes, totaling just one minute of footage, from Quantum of Solace, Craig's second outing as James Bond. Scenes included Bond swinging from a rope, an explosion at an art gallery in Siena, Italy, and Bond and M meeting up in the snowy outdoors.
Expectations are high for the upcoming 22nd installment, as Casino Royale has already become the highest grossing film in the Bond canon, having taken in nearly $595 million worldwide.
Quantum of Solace is due out in the U.K. and the U.S. Nov. 7.