Bond, James Bond, Back and Better says Daniel Craig
Back but different, even down to the Bond girls
By Michelle Foody
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/12/08 — “Bond. James Bond.” One of the most famous introductions in film. His movies are about the highest grossing, longest running franchises of all time, and his legions of fans hail from all corners of the globe.
On Friday, his 22nd film, “Quantum of Solace” will storm cineplexes across North America. As the follow-up to 2006’s “Casino Royale”, the Bond-makers have shaken the film franchise, keeping Daniel Craig, but throwing in a massive $230 million budget and mixing it with a new director, to concoct one very highly anticipated sequel.
“Quantum” finds the dashing 007 precisely where audiences left him: with a broken heart, a dead girlfriend, and a hell of a vendetta. Bolstered by its unprecedented bankroll for a Bond movie, and scrutinized via the media’s unblinking eye-transfixed on the film since day one of pre-production-expectations are running high. Amidst the chaos leading up the British premier, Hollywood Today sat down the spy himself–actor Daniel Craig, German-born director Marc Foster, and Bond-girl-du-jour Olga Kurylenko for some interrogating of our own.
“It is definitely my first endeavor into action movies”, Foster admitted, whose impressive filmography includes “Monster’s Ball” and “The Kite Runner”, “but it was very satisfying, creatively. The expectations are enormous, making the follow-up to Casino Royale…and while making the movie, the entire media and all the fans are watching you, following every step.”
But the latest man to fill Bond’s tailored tux, Mr. Daniel Craig, didn’t hesitate in coming to his director’s defense.
“Marc is a great storyteller. [People said] ‘How was a man with no action experience going to do a Bond movie?’ But he was so meticulous, he turned everybody around and did a fabulous job,” the star insisted.
Foster also gave his leading man the leeway to do much of his own stunts, prompting overblown rumors of on-set injuries, as well as a good deal of hand-wringing from insurers and producers alike, no doubt.
“We started rehearsing for the movie two months before we started shooting. The jumps from roof to roof were me,” said Craig. “It was just about getting it right and making it look right. I was burned out at the end of the shoot, definitely…I was in the gym everyday after work, and then I’d go to bed. It’s the job.”
In turn, his director readily vouched for Craig’s stunt work: “Daniel is a very physical actor and it is great as a director, because you get a much more intense and truthful expression from the actor. On the other hand, I’m on the edge of my seat, watching the sequence and hoping he will be fine.”
In addition to its director hailing from outside the United Kingdom “Quantum” marks another first: an un-bedded Bond girl. That vacancy, left following Vesper Lynd’s tragic demise in the waters of Venice at the close of “Casino Royale”, is filled this go-round by Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko.
“I’ve seen quite a lot of Bond girls…She’s very different, this girl,” explains model-turned-actress Kurylenko. “With the last movie, the whole concept of Bond changed, in a good way. To be a Bond girl, you need to physically work very hard. I think my character is very feisty, and also involved in so much action.”
And as for their unconsummated dalliance: “Bond is in pain, he just lost the woman he loves. It would be illogical for him to get into another relationship”, insists the actress, who plays a mysterious Columbian known only as Camille.
Foster agreed that the classic Bond girl paradigm introduced in 1952 must shift with the times:
“These days you can’t just cast a Bond girl as an object of beauty, it has to be a three dimensional character.”
And with the maturation of the Bond franchise in mind, Craig looked towards the future, to what is known only as “Bond 23″:
“I feel very confident now that we can go everywhere we want. I think emotionally now we’re very secure,” declared the actor. “We can go more Bond-like, and we can have all those things that we’re missing from the past two movies. We’re grounded now, and we can’t let anyone forget that it’s a Bond movie”.
“I wanted to make the Bond movie I always wanted to see,” adds Foster. “This is not your traditional Bond movie.”
What remains to be seen is how audiences, who initially bristled at the changing of the Bond-guard prior to “Casino Royale” before showering Craig with box-office gold, will react to “Quantum of Solace”. Godspeed, Mr. Bond.