Quantum of Solace DVD Deleted-Scene Details Revealed
By Thomas Leupp
Caution -- Massive Spoilers Ahead!!!
At today's press day for the new James Bond flick Quantum of Solace, director Marc Forster revealed that he'd originally intended the film to end with something of a cliffhanger -- as opposed to the current ending, which effectively serves as a bookend to the two-chapter storyline that began with 2006's Casino Royale.
"There was a scene after where the movie ends now," explained Forster. "The movie felt sort of complete with Bond finding his 'quantum of solace.' If I would have kept the scene, then producers wouldn't have had a choice but to make it a trilogy. Now they can start new. They have that opportunity."
Forster added that the excised scene, a little over a minute in length, is slated to appear on the Quantum of Solace DVD. And what vital information does it contain? "Let's put it this way: Bond encounters Mr. White at the end of that scene," he teased, hinting at the possibility that White may be the chief architect of the conspiracy at the heart of the film. "You wouldn't have had a choice at the end of that but to follow that lead."
Bond fans will remember Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) as the villain in Casino Royale who executes terrorist financier Le Chiffre before being captured by 007. In Quantum of Solace, the name of the shadowy, SPECTRE-like organization to which Mr. White belongs is revealed to be Quantum.
Is Mr. White the new Blofeld? Bond fans will have the opportunity to parse the deleted scene and decide for themselves when Quantum of Solace arrives on DVD in 2009.
Quantum of Solace opens nationwide on November 14th.