'Quantum of Solace' Production Pays Homage To Ken Adam

During the process of shooting Quantum of Solace, director Marc Forster revealed his appreciation for many of the early James Bond films, citing the production design by Ken Adam as one of the hallmarks of the series.

In a new Variety article, Forster explains how he tried to pay homage to Adam’s visually stunning sets in the design of this latest 007 film.

‘I wanted to return to the stylish look of the early Bond films by production designer Ken Adam,’ he said.

007 at the Barbican, back when Quantum of Solace was known as Bond 22

Production designer Dennis Gassner, who replaced longstanding crew member Peter Lamont on this film, said Daniel Craig as Bond was integral in the process of creating Quantum‘s more modernistic and organic style.

He said: ‘I had to find a new place in the world for Bond to be Bond on his journey. I said to Marc that the only thing that I had to hold onto was Daniel. And what is that? It’s this incredibly angular, chiseled, textured face and blue eyes. It was so simple that it was right in front of us. So I really created a pattern language based on that theory and Marc’s… sense of style and design.’

As hinted by the film’s trailers and leaked production photos, several typical Bond locations, such as M’s office, have gotten a complete makeover. ‘I wanted to show London the way nobody’s ever seen it before,’ said Gassner. This included shooting at Barbican at the very beginning of production way back in January.

007 at the Barbican

On the new MI6 office, Gassner said: ‘I wanted to put Judi [Dench] in a really smart room because she’s the embodiment of MI6. I wanted to see her [figuratively] inside a Macintosh computer and give her the opportunity to use her mind and her voice, so what she says, she gets: “Where’s Bond?” She has easy access in the stainless metal-and-glass world that she’s in.’

However, some longstanding Bond traditions were maintained on Quantum of Solace, including taking advantage of the massive 007 Stage for some of the film’s major action sequences.

‘[After] they rebuilt the stage and ‘Mamma Mia!’ actually shot there, we inhabited it again, ironically, on this film for a big fire sequence,’ said producer Barbara Broccoli. ‘So we got through the sequence without incident, fortunately, but on the backlot, we had a [second] fire involved on one of the exteriors where we were shooting. And there was a report that we had something burn down, which actually was not correct. We deliberately set it on fire.’

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