The James Bond movie ruined by a writers strike
With both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America currently on strike, it’s important to recognise that this isn’t the first time any of this has happened. While the combined strikes of both actors and writers make this movement one of the biggest in the history of Hollywood, there was a notable precedent in the 100-day writers’ strike that occurred between 2007 and 2008 that affected a classic James Bond movie.
That strike cost the entertainment industry an estimated $2billion, according to the Milken Institute. It also caused radical changes to movies that were either in production or about to enter production. One of those films was Quantum of Solace, the second James Bond feature to star Daniel Craig in the lead role. Craig recalled arriving on set just two hours before the official strike was called, putting him and director Marc Forster in a difficult position.
“On Quantum, we were fucked,” Craig bluntly told Time Out London in 2011. “We had the bare bones of a script, and then there was a writers’ strike, and there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, ‘Never again,’ but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not”.
Even though Quantum of Solace officially credits three screenwriters – Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade – Craig and Forster were forced to stitch together the final product themselves. “Me and Mark Forster were the ones allowed to do it. The rules were that you couldn’t employ anyone as a writer, but the actor and director could work on scenes together,” Craig said. “We were stuffed. It was never meant to be as much of a sequel as it was, but it ended up being a sequel, starting where the last one finished.”
According to a 2007 New York Times article on the film’s production, Haggis recalled handing in the script the same day as the strike began. Producer Barbara Broccoli remembered a similar set of circumstances. “We basically started shooting without a script, which is never a good idea,” Broccoli recalled. “The script was turned in, and I remember the writer who turned the script in picked up his check, and then picked up his placard and stood outside the studio striking.”
The effect that the writer’s strike had on Quantum of Solace was immense. Although the film made over $500million at the box office when it was released in 2008, reviews were only lukewarm and have continued to get harsher as the years go by. Along with 2015’s Spectre, Quantum of Solace is often ranked near the bottom of most James Bond film rankings. Had the production had the proper resources – namely, had writers gotten fair compensation – to complete the film, who knows what could have become of Quantum of Solace?
Check out the trailer for Quantum of Solace down below.
