BOND: 10 Things You Might Not Know About QUANTUM OF SOLACE

They say Geek Dave is judged by the strength of his enemies.

1. In July 2006, as Casino Royale entered post-production, Eon Productions announced that the next James Bond film would be based on an original idea by Michael G. Wilson. The franchise producer had been developing a storyline throughout the production of Casino Royale inspired by that movie's events, and was especially keen on exploiting Bond's emotions following Vesper Lynd's death, The regular writing team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis where then contracted to provide the screenplay, and an ambitious May 2008 release date was announced - just 18 months after Casino Royale's theatrical release.

However, in June 2007, when Marc Foster was confirmed as director, he wanted to implement some changes to the script, specifically focusing more on Bond as a character and completely changing the personality and direction of Bond girl Camille Montes, so the release date was pushed back 6 months, and Haggis, Forster and Wilson began rewriting the story from scratch. Haggis revealed that their final draft of the script was completed and submitted two hours before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike officially began on November 5th 2007

2. Although second unit filming began in August 2007, principal photography did not start until January 2008. At this time the writers strike showed no sign of reaching a conclusion, and despite Haggis' earlier comments about submitting a completed screenplay, when he arrived on set Daniel Craig felt otherwise.

"We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers' strike and there was nothing we could do. The rules were that you couldn't employ anyone as a writer to finish it, but the actor and director could work on scenes together. We were stuffed. There was me trying to rewrite scenes — and a writer I am not. We got away with it, but only just.

It was never meant to be as much of a sequel as it was, but it ended up being a sequel, starting where [Casino Royale] finished."

Asked if he might consider a future career in screenwriting, Craig replied...

"I say to myself, 'Never again', but who knows?"

3. Not only did the script come together whilst filming, the title wasn't in place at the start of principal photography either! Michael G. Wilson eventually decided on Quantum of Solace only "a few days" before its announcement on 24th January 2008, taking the name from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only. The film does not include any plot points from that short story but is related to the title in one of its thematic elements:

"when the 'Quantum of Solace' drops to zero, humanity and consideration of one human for another is gone."

Daniel Craig was initially not a fan of the chose title,

"I was unsure at first [but] Bond is looking for his quantum of solace and that's what he wants, he wants his closure. Ian Fleming says that if you don't have a quantum of solace in your relationship then the relationship is over. It's that spark of niceness in a relationship that if you don't have you might as well give up.

Bond doesn't have that because his girlfriend [Vesper Lynd] has been killed, and therefore [he's] looking for revenge … to make himself happy with the world again."

4. Because of the decision to name the film Quantum Of Solace, further on-the-fly rewrites to the screenplay were instigated, primarily naming the organisation in the film Quantum, and retroactively naming said organisation Quantum after its introduced in Casino Royale.

5. Despite being an original story, the screenplay for Quantum Of Solace was not released as a novel. Instead Penguin Books published a compilation of Ian Fleming's earlier short stories entitled Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories, to capitalise on the film's promotion. The book combines the contents of Fleming's two short story collections, "For Your Eyes Only" (including the original "Quantum of Solace" short story) and "Octopussy and The Living Daylights".

6. Gemma Arterton reportedly beat 1500 other actresses to the role of MI6 agent Strawberry Fields. Her first day on set saw the filming of her character's death scene, where she was completely covered head to toe in non-toxic black paint.

Arterton's character's full name, which is a reference to the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever", is never actually uttered on screen, as when Bond asks her for her name she replies, "Just Fields."

7. Another 'name' related piece of trivia is that Quantum Of Solace marked the first time since 1967's You Only Live Twice that Bond did not introduce himself with the catchphrase "Bond, James Bond". The line was shot for several different scenes, and remained in the film right up to the last minute. It would've been included in the scene where Bond meets Gemma Arterton's character (making more sense of her retort of "just Fields"), but was cut out by Marc Forster as he tried to tighten up the running time as the director had found Casino Royale's 144-minute running time too long, and wanted his follow-up to be "tight and fast … like a bullet."

The other staple Bond line stating a "vodka martini, shaken not stirred" does not appear in this movie either.

8. During promotion for Quantum Of Solace, Daniel Craig said that working on the previous James Bond film, Casino Royale, had physically been "a walk in the park" compared to this 22nd installment in the long running franchise. This was because the actor was injured at least three times during the production.

While filming in Pinewood, he suffered a gash when kicked in his face, which required eight stitches and minor plastic surgery. Another injury occurred to his shoulder, which required six surgical screws to be inserted and left his arm in a sling. He also lost the tip of a finger when it was sliced over during stuntwork.

Craig laughed these injuries off, noting they did not delay filming, and joked his finger wound would enable him to have a criminal career (though it had grown back when he made this comment).