The infamous Writers Guild of America strike put Quantum of Solace into a very difficult position, with longtime James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson admitting they were screwed from the outset after production and release deadlines forced them to start shooting Daniel Craig’s second outing as 007 without a finished script.
Production was then dogged by rumors of behind the scenes disagreements between the leading man and director Marc Forster, with the filmmaker revealing that he struggled making the jump from intimate independent dramas to a $200 million blockbuster.
Quantum of Solace even led to the arrest of a local official, when the mayor of Chilean commune Sierra Gorda staged a protest at the movie portraying his constituency as part of Bolivia. Looking at everything that unfolded, it’s no surprise that Craig didn’t beat around the bush when reflecting on his legacy as Bond on The Empire Film Podcast.
“I would sort of yearn the person I was when I did Casino. Too much knowledge sometimes is not a good thing. I was sort of in the dark about a lot of things, about how things worked, the mechanics of it. How the world really viewed Bond, all of those things I was just didn’t understand them. Then I started to understand them, the weight of it sort of bore down. The trouble with Quantum of Solace, it was a bit of a sh*t show, to say the least, the full weight of it was there I kind of think that made me probably lock up. Thankfully, for me, it’s been about loosening it and loosening it and trying to get back to that feeling of Casino, which was ‘It’s James Bond, come on, enjoy yourself. Let’s have a good time’.”
Critics and fans still view Quantum of Solace as the weakest of Craig’s five-film tenure as the iconic secret agent, but it nonetheless managed to earn $589 million at the box office. Many of the circumstances were outwith the creative team’s control, but Gemma Arterton has also voiced her regrets over her role as Strawberry Fields, so the widespread discontent wasn’t just restricted to events that couldn’t have been predicted.
