Daniel Craig is ready to quantify Quantum of Solace. 007’s 22nd big-screen adventure proved to be a box office bonanza, earning over $500 million worldwide so far. And while the critical reception to the film was not unkind, the consensus was that it wasn’t quite as licensed to thrill as its franchise-redefining predecessor Casino Royale.
As Craig prepares to launch his next big film Defiance, director Edward Zwick’s serious-minded but still action-packed exploration of a group of Polish Jews who fought back against the Nazis during the Holocaust, ComingSoon.net talked to the blonde Bond about the reception to “Quantum” and his plans to get shaken and/or stirred for the next installment.
ComingSoon.net: The critical reaction to “Quantum of Solace” was somewhat different than that for “Casino Royale.” Did that surprise you?
Daniel Craig: No, because “Casino Royale” was based on a novel and we’re always going to have that. When you do a movie like that, where the basis of a story is really strong and also the momentum of it, everyone thought that it was going to be sh*t. So when it wasn’t, they were all just completely surprised. I think that “Quantum of Solace” is as good a movie as “Casino Royale.” I think that the difference is that last time people were surprised by the fact that they enjoyed it. The fact is that we get reviews in newspapers that we’d never had reviews in before. Certainly with the Internet we get seven and a half million reviews, which are all worth looking at, obviously.
CS: The financial success of the film does suggest that people really respond to you as James Bond.
Craig: I don’t try to intellectualize that. I do know what we’ve done is make a movie that the first time I saw it I got a huge kick out of it. Ultimately that’s what we’re trying to do at the end of the day: putting a movie out that’s an entertaining, exciting, hopefully slightly moving Bond movie. That’s all our goal ever was. The way that people have taken to it is just amazing.
CS: Do you think that calls to go to work on the next one will come a little quicker after the huge success of “Quantum?”
Craig: I haven’t heard anything – but then I’m not answering my phone.
CS: What more do you want to do with Bond? What other parts of him would you like to explore?
Craig: Well, I genuinely think we’ve got a blank page now. We’ve finished this story off. “Quantum of Solace” was exactly the right thing to do. We started something with “Casino Royale” and we wrapped it all up with “Quantum of Solace.” We’re ready to begin again and we can do what we want.
CS: So you think that the next one will be a throwback to another Bond era?
Craig: Submarines and outer space!
CS: Are you all still looking at unused Ian Fleming story elements, since that worked so well in “Casino Royale?”
Craig: Yeah, but there’s nothing left. It’s all done unless someone finds a dirty manuscript under the couch at [Fleming’s Jamaican estate] GoldenEye, we’re stuffed.
CS: Is it important for you to do projects other than Bond between the films?
Craig: It’s not really the method that I go by. Look, I’m not going to take another part as a British spy who drives nice cars. That’s definitely not going to happen, but I’m not closing the door on anything.
CS: So there’s nothing else on the horizon about it?
Craig: Not for the moment. A holiday.
CS: How will you be spending the holidays?
Craig: Happily, hopefully [laughs]. Very quietly.
Quantum of Solace is now playing worldwide and Defiance opens in limited theaters on Dec. 31 before expanding wide on Jan. 16.
