The first reports from the "Quantum of Solace" press conference in Chile surface. Details are revealed on shooting, plot, characters, and more...

Production Diary (21)
4th April 2008

Reports in today's editions of USA Today and The Sun (UK) confirm that the filming that is wrapping in the Antofagasta region of Chile will form the climax to the forthcoming 22nd James Bond film "Quantum of Solace". Check out both newspaper links for fresh stills from the film.

"He has his heart broken," says Craig to USA Today. "The love of his life is killed, and he finds out she's not who she said she was. He's out for revenge. But he's also out to find — and this is what the title is about — a 'quantum of solace.' Something has been taken away from him, and he's out to get that back." When the press visited the location filming, Craig was seen running "full speed along the rooftop of a long, narrow building, wedged like a man-made plateau into the rocky red valley. He's firing a prop pistol into the mirrored skylights below." The building is doubling for an 'eco hotel' - a buried tropical oasis amid this wasteland designed to lure the rich and powerful with the latest environmental technology. The hotel is a front for the villain, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a tycoon using a "Save the Earth" facade to hide his plan to seize control of part of South America's water supply. "The villain has taken over this place. Greene is pretending to be 'green,' but he's obviously not," says producer Michael G. Wilson.

Chile Heat
The real shooting location is actually part of the Paranal Observatory, which houses some of the world's largest telescopes. The campus contains the only buildings within a 75-mile radius, with unforgiving desert stretching in every direction at an elevation of 8,700 feet above sea level.

Olga Kurylenko, who plays rogue agent Camille in the film, told the paper: "It's much easier to work here than in Panama, weather-wise. It's hot in both countries, but in Panama it's humid, and we were working on the boat and I was sweating. Here it's dry, it's different, it's much easier, but I'm out of breath a little bit."

Director Marc Forster explained the choice of location. "I chose the desert because it's isolated, you feel lonely, and that's what Bond is struggling with himself. In the desert, it's unforgivable. You're out there, and you might die."

USA Today reports that in the finished sequence of the Chilean rooftop fight, Bond will shatter the skylights and plunge down atop the fleeing Greene. Forster says the underlying tension of the scene is Bond wrestling with his eye-for-an-eye temptations. "I said, 'Look, you're not shooting Greene, you're only shooting the glass because you want him alive. You want to crash through and find him,' " Forster says. In that moment, facing the impending explosion, Bond must decide whether slaying his nemesis is worth the cost of other innocent lives. "When they have this moment between them, Bond has a decision to make," Forster says. "Bond lost someone he loved. But what does it mean to kill someone, when you just lost someone?" The action has been relentless for Craig. He told The Sun, "I have been running up and down here all day and it does feel hard at this altitude. Apparently you feel a ton better when you get back down to sea level, which is something I am looking forward to."

Craig detailed the other action scenes for the film, "We are going from stunt sequence to stunt sequence. We did a body flight thing where you are free-falling in a wind tunnel. That was tough. I did a two-day fight sequence which we had been rehearsing for two months. That was physically very hard — getting hit, basically. We are going to Siena in Italy next week and we are going to be working at heights. The speedboat sequence was also very hard. Filming on water is always difficult.”

Continuity & Change
Although "Quantum of Solace" is the first ever 'direct' sequel in the Bond series to date, producer Michael G. Wilson said that the franchise may go back to stand-alone plots for the next outing. "He has the realization that there's no place for him in the outside world," Wilson said. "And also he's tempted by revenge and tempted by becoming a cynic, by losing his humanity. He has to fight all of these things." On the subject of Camille's character, Wilson said: "We felt Bond could not immediately fall into another relationship. And we needed someone who had her own agenda and probably could not form a relationship either because of her situation."

Bond does bed another MI6 agent, played by British actress Gemma Arterton, 22, a relative newcomer. "He has one relationship in this movie, a kind of fling. It's mutually beneficial," Craig says. "I think both parties enjoy it." Craig explained a little about the character of 007 and how it has changed through the franchise. "It's a simplistic story that has been around for a long, long time: There's one lone hero going after the bad guys. It has been around forever. But you have to apply morals to it, and within that you show somebody's flaws. That's what makes them interesting, the mistakes they make along the way and how they adjust." "The fact is he's hurt. He's damaged and he wants revenge. And that's another facet of somebody, and it's not a good emotion to have. You've got to see how he deals with it. Last time around, it was just duty and duty alone. This time around, there's a sense of revenge. That's how he's going to screw up. Because he will — but then he gets up and gets it right."

For Quant Of A Better Word
On the subject of the title, which got far more attention from the media than the fans (contrary to what the media reports), Wilson explained: "The title we thought was appropriate for a couple of reasons. The villainous organization is called Quantum, and what Bond is looking for in his life is a measure of comfort, and that's what a 'quantum of solace' is. He's just trying to find a little bit of comfort because his life is in turmoil."

The Sun reports that, contrary to some media rumours about his tenure past the next film (his third), Craig plans keep his role. “Until my joints go I will keep going as Bond. I have no intention of giving up just yet. It’s important that we make the best movies possible, so I can hopefully sit back in semi-retirement at some point and look back and think they were wonderful movies."