Shortly after I first saw Casino Royale, someone asked me what I thought about it and I blurted out "B-." How could I, a Bond fan, give the movie such a low rating, they wanted to know, to which I replied that it seemed more like a movie-movie than a Bond movie and it should have gone further in its realism, and been R-rated. "If they had made this as a sort of R-rated version of Majesty's Secret Service, it might have actually been a great film," I said at the time. All of this is a long-winded way of leading up to mentioning that Daniel Craig is apparently keen on executing an explicit nude scene in Quantum of Solace, according to reports, which would seem to necessitate an R-rating this time around. Access Hollywood recently asked Jeffrey Wright about the rumors that Craig was trying to work some full-frontal into the movie this time around, to which he replied "The world is ready for anything, but I'm not licensed to reveal that." He also conceded that the title of the film was "pretty exotic."

Meanwhile, for those of you who have completely given up on trying to remain spoiler-free, there are now many details of a key car chase that will occur in the film. The Italian press has been all over this one, with an Italian Bond fansite detailing that the chase will take place along the banks of Lake Garda, between the resort towns of Navene and Malcesine and that the cars are expected to top speeds of 125 mph. According to them "the pursuit will feature spectacular and reckless maneuvers in a series of tunnels, culminating with a scene where a truck brings the action to an abrupt halt and a huge explosion." I don't know about you, but hearing that makes me immediately depressed because I have zero confidence that Marc Forster can pull it off. I mean, really, this is the guy who couldn't even make kite-flying seem realistic.

Finally, thanks to some advance toy marketing, we know that there will be a character in this film known as 'Elvis.' There's no confirmation on who this character is supposed to be, but since he's prominent enough to be toy-worthy, expect yet another casting announcement soon.

[Via MI6]

Well, it's official. After referring to the latest Bond movie as Bond 22 for what seemed like forever, BBC News reports that producers of the 22nd installment of the Bond franchise say the official title will be...wait for it...Quantum of Solace. To be honest, my first reaction was -- huh? Then, however, I found out that the title was taken from a collection of short stories published by Bond creator Ian Fleming back in 1960, so I guess it has some retro charm in spite of the fact that it sounds kind of awkward; don't you think? (Once again, Daniel Craig might have been messing with us all, just a little, with hints that "007" was the official title.)

The announcement came during a press conference at the new Pinewood Studios, where the film has begun shooting. Journalists were shown some clips of Bond swinging out of an explosion of an art gallery in Italy, as well as a meeting between Bond (Daniel Craig) and M (Judi Dench) in a snowy locale.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that they finally announced their new Bond Girl, Olga Kurylenko. So sure, the production has taken it's time assembling the cast around Daniel Craig; but now that it is all said and done, they have managed to put together a pretty interesting ensemble. There are some familiar faces from Casino Royale returning -- Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter. Plus, there are also some first-timers to the Bond franchise including critically acclaimed French actor Mathieu Amalric as our bad guy and Gemma Arterton as MI6 Agent Fields. We've gotten a couple of images from the film, but so far, most of the details about the story are still being kept under lock and key. So, if you can't wait for November 7th when Quantum of Solace hits theaters, stay tuned for any updates that come our way.

UPDATE: After the jump, you will find the film's synopsis, courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Read at your own risk!

Variety is reporting that Jeffrey Wright will reprise his role as CIA operative Felix Leiter in Bond 22, after first putting his stamp on the popular supporting character in Casino Royale. I say 'popular' only in the sense that Leiter has been recreated innumerable times in the Bond films and novels -- if you go to the Wikipedia page for the character you'll see an entire picture set of different actors, of different ages, builds and races, who have portrayed him through the years. I personally find it stupid and distracting to keep shoving some new, completely different character in our faces every few years and have him simply be referred to by the same name as the last guy. And yeah, I know, you could say the same thing about James Bond himself, but that's sort of a necessity. Just because Bond must be played by a new actor every once in a while doesn't mean that his supporting cadre of sidekicks are owed the same kind of longevity.

In other Bond news, the Vanity Fair spread on Indiana Jones -- specifically the Q&A with Spielberg -- contains some interesting musings by The Beard on what separates Bond from Jones and vice versa. I especially liked the interviewer's noting that Alison Doody's character in the third Indy was a lot more in the mold of a traditional Bond girl than a Jones woman. Spielberg agreed, noting that "She was more like a Bond girl, but she was also a betrayer. She betrays Indy, but she's more like a Bond girl. But not Kate. Kate wasn't a Bond girl at all. When push came to shove, she could stand alongside Indy and knock out thuggies." He actually said thuggees! Too bad VF spelled it wrong.

UPDATE: Variety has also just confirmed that Mathieu Amalric has been cast as the Bond 22 villain (as previously rumored), meanwhile Variety also claims producers and the studios are on the verge of casting a female lead with an announcement coming within the next two weeks.

After watching The Invasion, I sincerely hope that Nicole Kidman becomes the next test case for the new Jim Carrey-style Hollywood deal, where talent receives no money up front and must live or die by the quality of the film they make. An actor with her star power, while not in a position to challenge the Warner Bros. decision to replace director Oliver Hirschbiegel and remake large portions of this film after what they deemed to be an unacceptable first cut, could certainly have taken some kind of stand for basement-level quality control that doesn't exist here at all. The Invasion is a borderline-unreleasable mess, with unfinished scenes, absurdly rushed exposition, and a plethora of random bad decisions that could only be the product of a hugely stressed production. Whose idea was it, for example, to embarrass Kidman with a Carmen Electra-sized Wonderbra that she totes around for most of the picture? Also, this has to be the first time I've ever seen an adrenaline-syringe-in-the-heart scene filmed with the casualness of a blocking rehearsal.

The set-up: A returning space shuttle explodes upon re-entry and the pieces are scattered over Nowhere, America, leading to a montage of the great unwashed reporting the crash to the news media. I'm not sure if the body snatchers crashed the shuttle on purpose or if they were just hitching a ride and something went wrong, but either way their mission is accomplished -- they are now extant on Earth and can get down to their business, which is infecting all of us through liquid contact and turning us into Democrats. You see, we're told repeatedly that body snatchers are peaceful and that once they rule the roost, there will be no more war and violence. As they begin to turn more and more people, we start to see 'positive' news on television screens -- President Bush warmly meeting with Hugo Chavez, for example, with Bush having presumably been turned. By the last act, the recurring visual of a smartly-dressed Kidman being chased through D.C. parking garages by the aggressive peaceniks plays like a reel of Ann Coulter's nightmares.

This is one I've been looking forward to for a long time, ever since the casting was first announced, and now after a long and complex production, a trailer has arrived, courtesy of Moviefone. It looks pretty good, although I have to say I didn't expect to find myself more attracted to the action elements than the creepy parts, but that's the case. The trailer is a little too busy and fast-paced to send out a horror vibe -- it skips pretty quickly through an entire set-up with the alien arrival, the pod people acting funny, and then the body snatchers attacking poor Nicole Kidman and her kid. I think I would have preferred something more creative, like maybe one session with the psychiatrist character played by Kidman, where a patient says or does something really weird, and boom -- that's your trailer. There's still time, Warner Bros! But I can live with this one for a start.

We finally get to see and hear Daniel Craig's character do his thing here, with a quasi-American accent, no less. For some reason, I think he's going to do some good work in this film. I haven't read the script or anything, it's just a hunch -- he's not one to sign on to a project without a gameplan. As I said, the best part of the trailer, for my money, is that car chase sequence -- the one that they shot during the late period when the Wachowskis were working on the film, and where Kidman suffered a minor injury. There's a nice shot where an entire horde of body snatchers attach themselves to the car and Kidman just floors it anyway. In a month or so, I'm going to have to do what is always the hardest part of my job -- try to put down all the stuff I've heard and read about the film, and go watch it with a blank slate. The Invasion hits theaters on August 17.