A Quantum Of Solace, the new Bond film, releases next week, and I can’t wait to see it. Casino Royale was the most dramatic re-invention of a major character in the history of cinema, and perhaps the most audacious risk taken in repositioning a brand since Marlboro was transformed from a women’s cigarette to a smoke for tough men. Casino Royale restarted the more-than-four-decades-old franchise with a Bond who hadn’t yet discovered the vodka martini, had no gadgets, and could fall in love.

Whatever advance reports I have read indicate the following: The film begins an hour after Casino Royale ends, with the love of Bond’s life Vesper Lynd dead and Bond having capped the sinister Mr White in the knee. He figures out that Mr White is a small cog in a massive global operation with world domination plans that Spectre used to harbour when Sean Connery had hair. So Bond goes for revenge on his own. The producers have promised double the action of Casino Royale, and the most realistic violence ever. Bond bleeds, Bond gets hurt, Bond pants a lot. And there are unconfirmed rumours that this will be the first Bond film where 007 doesn’t sleep with the leading lady, because he’s still grieving over Vesper. Are these guys mad? Why are they trying to create a character? It’s only James Bond for god’s sake, the guy with the smart one-liners as he casually bumped off mad nasties! But I can’t wait to see how this experiment of Bond-with-tormented-soul works out.

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