Identity of additional `Quantum of Solace` writer revealed as newcomer Joshua Zetumer

05-Apr-2008 • Quantum Of Solace

In an earlier interview piece, Mathieu Amalric mentioned that a a fourth screenwriter had been called in to polish "Quantum of Solace" after Paul Haggis had to put his pen down during the WGA strike.

According to a RottenTomatoes report, "[Marc] Forster and [Michael G.] Wilson both revealed that an earlier idea for the film was scrapped when Forster came aboard to helm. "Once I signed on to do it and we pretty much developed the script from scratch because I felt that it wasn't the movie I wanted to make and started with Paul [Haggis] from scratch. And I said to him these are the topics I am interested in this is what I would like to say, what's important to me. And we developed it from there together. Then Barbara and Michael said they liked where we were going and they liked the script."

Forster confirmed to RT that the strike did not actually impact the development process. "The good thing is that Paul and I and Daniel all worked on the script before the strike happened and got it where we were pretty happy with," Forster said. "Then we started shooting and the only problems I had with the script we were shooting in April, May and June so as soon as the strike was over we did another polish with someone and it worked out with all this stuff coming up. So I was pretty happy with all the work we'd done in January and February so [there won't be any need for reshoots]."

Nevertheless, Forster did hire another writer, newcomer Joshua Zetumer, to polish Haggis' draft. "He's a very young writer and he only wrote two or three scripts. And I read a script of his that I was very fond of and Barbara and Michael liked it," the director explained. "There were a couple of polishes and changes that I wanted to do and I felt that he was very well suited and I thought that he would be good for it and that's why I hired him."

Thanks to `shadowonthesun` for the alert.