Craig: Creativity And Talent Must Fuel Bond Franchise Future

ReelzChannel has posted a lengthy interview with James Bond star Daniel Craig, in which the actor discusses the path the character is taking during his era.

“Eva Green played this great part, a wonderful performance, and when it came around to shooting this movie it was like, we can’t just push that aside.” – Daniel Craig

“We started off something in Casino Royale,” Craig said. “We had a great storyline, we had a great book, we had a novel by Ian Fleming that was solid and had a love story in it – a really strong love story. And Eva Green played this great part, a wonderful performance, and when it came around to shooting this movie it was like, we can’t just push that aside. We have to develop that; we have to tie up the loose ends here. And that’s what Quantum of Solace is about – it’s him finding his quantum of solace. He’s not on a vendetta. He’s not after revenge. He’s after finding his place. And his relationships with M and Felix and obviously with Mathis – and subsequently with Camille – in the movie are about solidifying his place in the world and who his allies are. And I think by the end of the movie we’re sure, and he’s Bond, and now we can do whatever we want.”

“We want people with creativity and talent to come in and go, ‘I’ve got a good idea.'” – Daniel Craig

When asked whether there’s a “road map” for the character’s development in future instalments, Craig replied, “No. We’ve got so much on our plate just trying to get one movie out. We’ve had discussions, but there’s never anything nailed down. Whether Paul Haggis does the next one or we get another writer involved, we want their ideas. We want their creative input. And to just say, ‘This is what we want.’ – it puts up barriers. It puts up walls. We want people with creativity and talent to come in and go, ‘I’ve got a good idea.'”.

A couple of weeks ago, 007 producer Barbara Broccoli hinted that the mysterious Quantum organisation, which features prominantly in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, would return in future James Bond pictures. “I think that there’s definitely room to get involved with that,” Craig told ReelzChannel. “We know [Quantum] kind of reaches up into governments now, so we could take it anywhere.”

“You can’t write gags for a movie like this; they either come or they don’t.” – Daniel Craig

One of the criticisms being levelled at the latest James Bond movie is its lack of humour. When asked whether future entries into the series will contain more laughs, Craig replied, “Ah, no. [laughs] I mean, of course we can do anything. But writing gags for a movie like this is wrong. You can’t write gags for a movie like this; they either come or they don’t. We dealt with this in a way and that is the way the story went, but honestly, the lines and all the – not the Bond clichés, but the Bond clichés – we can put in as long as we earn them. This is not what this has been about. But there’s a few gags in there. There’s some belly laughs in there. Somewhere.”

Craig also spoke about the difficulty of topping each previous film: “It’s a high-class problem, to be honest. I think that as long as we’re keeping the product good – it feels horrible to say that word, but let’s be honest, that’s what it is – keeping the quality up, keeping the money on the screen, keeping audiences interested. I can’t predict what’s going to happen. If we’re fighting an uphill battle then it’s time to rethink, but if that’s a challenge, then I think it’s a good challenge.”

The actor also confirmed he is under contract for four James Bond films, of which Quantum of Solace is the second.

Be sure to check out the complete interview, in which Craig discusses working with Judi Dench and Olga Kurylenko, coping with fame, and filming the famous gunbarrel sequence, at ReelzChannel.

Work on the 23rd James Bond film is planned to commence in January.

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