Paul Haggis Wanted Quantum of Solace to Introduce James Bond Jr.?
As some people may know, Paul Haggis (Crash) was one of the screenwriters for the last James Bond movie Casino Royale. Like many big blockbusters, the movie was eventually subject to rewrites by a number of other contributors including Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Johnny English), but I’ve always been curious about how much of the movie was actually a direct result of Paul Haggis. I just find it interesting that one of the most unanimously popular movies from the past few years was also written by a guy that everyone seemingly loves to hate.
As it turns out, Haggis also wrote Quantum of Solace with Purvis and Wade, and while the early reviews for the movie are quite promising, director Marc Forster recently revealed one pretty ridiculous plot element that almost snuck into the movie, courtesy of Mr. Walker Texas Ranger:
“Haggis had an idea they weren’t fond of, and I didn’t know if it would work or not… The idea was that Vesper in the last movie, maybe she had a kid, and there would be an orphan out there. It wasn’t anything to insult the franchise. But they felt it wasn’t particularly Bond — him looking for the kid. I think Paul thought he just leaves the kid, he doesn’t deal with it. But [the producers] thought that would be really nasty, too, because Bond was an orphan himself. If he would find a kid, would he just leave it? They were so vehemently against it. That was the only time I saw, really, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ They said, ‘Once he finds the kid, Bond can’t just leave the kid. It’s not right.’”
Wow. Yeah, James Bond with a kid is probably the worst idea ever. Heck, even in the animated series James Bond Jr., they had the sense to make the kid his nephew rather than his son! Didn’t Haggis see Superman Returns? At any rate, I guess we should be thankful that Haggis had a few co-writers and producers to overrule him. What do you think, is this just further proof that Paul Haggis is a hack?
Comments (10)
James Bond Jr. infuriated me as a child because if he was Bond’s nephew, he wouldn’t be a Junior. That was a pretty terrible cartoon, now that I think about it.
Posted by Liz on November 4th, 2008In retrospect, yes it was. But I loved it at the time.
Posted by Sean on November 4th, 2008Ugggghhhhh. As if we needed any proof beyond Crash that Haggis should never be in full control of any project.
Posted by Derek on November 4th, 2008james bond jr is right up their with caption planet as one of my most hated cartoon series ever as a child.
Posted by paulie on November 4th, 2008I had the James Bond Jr. action figures back in the day and I thought they were awesome.
Still not getting why people hate on Crash so much. It feels like the hip thing for netpeeps to hate on anything that wins the Oscar for Best Picture. Sure, Haggis has no easily discernible directorial style but it really wasn’t terrible. If Dark Knight won (starting to think it’s possible; the Obama of movies?) then these badwagon peeps will be stifled. If it doesn’t win then they will ceaselessly hate the winner no matter how good it is.
With that said, the idea of live-action Bond having a son is definitely terrible!
Posted by Ryan M. on November 4th, 2008Hey, Crash was a good movie. You may believe the critics are all idiots, but the movie is also in the IMDB Top 200 with a rating of 8.1, so a lot of people liked it. So hate it all you want, this doesn’t change the fact that it was a good movie.
I also agree about the son of Bond as a terrible idea.
Posted by cib3k on November 4th, 2008Yeah…lame idea.
I never saw Crash, but I did put a shoulder into Paul Haggis’ head while walking down Bloor St in Toronto and he didn’t get upset. So, he’s okay in my books.
Posted by Greg on November 4th, 2008Paul Haggis is a moron. Junior? Come on.
Crash? Don’t get me started. I could go on about how much this movie sucks for days on end. It’s lazy, simplistic, sensational, preachy, underwritten, poorly edited, overwrought, pretentious, and pedestrian.
Posted by Ashley on November 5th, 2008So…Ashley…tell me how you really feel.
Posted by Greg on November 5th, 2008Sorry, but I liked Superman Returns-if none of you do, tough shit for you. Also, if it was so bad, then why did it make the top ten lists of most critics?
Posted by Neville Ross on November 11th, 2008Leave a Reply