In fact, the case could be made that Haggis never actually finished what was intended to be the final draft of Quantum of Solace. That’s what happened to Quantum of Solace, which began second unit photography in the summer of 2007 before the latest draft by Paul Haggis (who also polished the dialogue and character work in Casino Royale) was finished. So as we are now at the beginning of another long (and needed) pause in Hollywood production, with the Writers Guild of America going on strike in 2023 to demand fairer treatment in the age of internet streaming, it seems fitting to look back on how vital writers are… particularly on films that went into production without finished scripts. Which is to say a lot changed in the writing process between inception and production… the most crucial aspect of which was the writers strike that lasted from late 2007 to February 2008. And any audience familiar with that 2008 film will know that other than staging an early scene in Siena, it bears almost no resemblance to the movie Wilson eventually produced. This was the earliest idea for the movie that became Quantum of Solace. “The job’s done, the bitch is dead,” Bond tersely mutters, unconvincingly posing as a tough guy misogynist who doesn’t care about Vesper. If you don’t recall, Craig’s debut as 007 recreated the bitter denouement from Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel, with Bond realizing the woman he loved, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green, onscreen) was dead, and that she had betrayed him due to blackmail by a hidden enemy. So even as Casino Royale was still in pre-production, Wilson took longtime Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade aside to make sure that the next Bond movie would spring smoothly out of Casino Royale’s ending.
While audiences only realized how great Daniel Craig was in the tuxedo after that ambitious reboot landed in cinemas in November 2006, the filmmakers long recognized they were making something special. Wilson, the longtime producer of the James Bond movie franchise and co-steward of the 007 brand (alongside his half-sister Barbara Broccoli), always had a clear vision for the film that would follow Casino Royale.
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