JAMES BOND RETURNS

The film sees Daniel Craig reprise his role as the iconic British agent after his debut in Casino Royale in 2006, and will also feature glamourous Bond girls Olga Kurylenko and British newcomer Gemma Arterton. A one minute clip of the film, showed Bond swinging on a rope after an explosion at an art gallery in Siena, Italy, then meeting with M - played by Dame Judi Dench - outside in the snow.

Arterton, 21, fresh out of drama school, plays the role of MI6 Agent Fields in the film, and Bond’s love interest. Describing their scenes together, she said: “I felt like a giggly girl, and I felt so young and inexperienced - but I kissed James Bond!” Ukrainian actress Kurylenko, who plays the character Camille, said that she has yet to film any scenes, but is working hard preparing for her role. “I’m doing weapons training and body flight training for aerial scenes and stunt work for fighting,” she said.

“My days are so long, and it’s very physical. She’s going to be very different from the previous Bond girls. She’s on her own mission and she’s driven by revenge.” The title is taken from a short story by creator Ian Fleming which was part of the For Your Eyes Only collection in 1960.

Few clues have been given about the film plot, but the written version has no super-villains, guns, or global conspiracies. It centres around a dinner party conversation in the Bahamas between Bond and the Colonial Governor. Bond is told of a young Diplomatic Service man who marries a flight attendant. When she becomes disillusioned with her life she begins a blatant affair which ruins her husband.

He retaliates by ruthlessly crushing her spirit over the course of a year, leaving her financially and emotionally ruined. The crux is the emotional phenomenon the Governor calls the Quantum of Solace, the smallest unit of human compassion that two people can have. As long as that compassion exists, people can survive, but when it is gone, when your partner no longer cares about your essential humanity, the relationship is over. Bond becomes depressed by the story as he realises he is alone, and that no one in the world has a “Quantum of Solace” for him. Filming on Quantum of Solace began in November 2007 and it will be released in the UK on November 7 2008.