Bond@Paranal

What drew you to direct such an action movie, which is totally different from what you have done before?

MF: I was always interested in different genres. Every film I have done so far was always different from the one before. When I first met Barbara and Michael I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, because I can only tell a story I feel really passionate about. But after I met Daniel I felt I could really make something special and was feeling really passionate about it. Bond is part of history, and if you make a Bond film you have to make sure you can add something artistically that hasn't been done before, and there I found my place. You know, Orson Welles said his biggest regret in life was that he'd never made a commercial film, so... (laughs)

Why did you pick Marc to do this film?

BB: Marc is a great filmmaker and storyteller. If you watch his films, you can see that he makes every film something very special. We discussed the script and he was full of ideas about how to make this film special and even better than Casino Royale. He was very willing to take on the challenge. We have been very pleased and honoured that he decided to do Bond.

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"The place here at ESO is unique in the world."

Press Conference with

Marc Forster (MF), director, and
Barbara Broccoli (BB) and Michael Wilson (MW), producers, of
the James Bond movie, QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

There has been a small controversy about the fact that the scenes shot here will actually represent Bolivia in the movie. Over the past years, the two countries have had difficult relationships - are you aware of this and what do you think about it?

MW: Chile is a beautiful country. We went all through the northern part and it has been an inspiration to us for the script. And of course, the place here at ESO is unique in the world. The story was originally set in Bolivia because the narrative wouldn't work in Chile; it's a different kind of situation. We also shot in Panama and part of the six weeks we spent there has been photo work for Bolivia too. I think it's just something in the nature of filmmakers. We go to places that inspire us and are easy to work in, and this is a very practical country to set a film in and many things attracted us here. Many films are shot in places different from where the action is supposed to take place. Take a film like Troy: it was shot in North Africa, not in Greece or in Turkey. That's just the way things are and I think and hope it will have a positive effect. In many places film shootings has a positive effect on tourism for instance, like it's been the case in Thailand where they set up a natural park after a James Bond shooting.

MF: I agree with Michael. It's a very common thing in filmmaking, and I think if we only filmed films about Chile in Chile, it would limit filmmakers.