The title of the next James Bond film was announced today, and on hearing it I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April the First. Having exhausted every one of Ian Fleming's novel titles, short-story titles, family mottos and even the name of his house, it's no wonder that the producers are finding themselves a little stuck. But what they've come up with is perhaps one of the most bizarre things I've even seen attached to a mainstream entertainment picture.
Yes, the next Bond film will be called
Quantum of Solace
It's like a game of Scrabble gone bad. Maybe it's an anagram of a real title. At any rate, it seems that 2008 is the year of silly titles. Starting with Cloverfield which didn't even seem to have a title until about three weeks before its release (and the one it ended up with is the name of a street outside the production company's window, and doesn't appear in the movie), we can also look forward to the absurd Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull appearing a little before Quantum of Solace shuffles on the big screen with all the same of a kid wearing a bad homemade crocodile costume.
Will there really be an emotional high-note where the love interest looks deep into James startling blue eyes and declares, "Will there be even a quantum of solace for you, James?" Or will it just have a silly plot centred round the particle accelerator at Cern?
The World is Not Enough, please come back. All is forgiven.
