-By Ethan Alter

Eyebrows shot up around the world when it was announced in June 2007 that Marc Forster would be helming the newest James Bond adventure. Never mind that the German-born director of such small-scale character pieces as Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland had never made an action film before—he had never made a movie that cost over $50 million. Given that history, it's understandable that Bond fans openly questioned whether Forster was really the best person to tackle 007's 22nd mission, particularly after Martin Campbell kicked the four-decade-old franchise back into high gear with 2006's monster hit Casino Royale. Why not entrust the series to a more established blockbuster director like Gore Verbinski or Sam Raimi? Or if the producers really wanted to be creative, how about finally giving professed Bond-lover Quentin Tarantino the opportunity to wield 007's license to kill? Sure, the resulting cut might be six hours long and cost $400 million, but at least it wouldn't lack for adrenaline-filled, death-defying stunts.

As it happens, Forster himself initially agreed with the naysayers. "I said, 'Did you get the wrong director?'" the 39-year-old filmmaker remembers telling producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the custodians of Bond's cinematic legacy, when they first offered him the job. "I didn't want to do it for a while. I really loved the old Bond movies from the ’60s, particularly Dr. No and Goldfinger, but I felt like it wasn't me. I couldn't identify with it." It took a meeting with 007 himself—or, to be more accurate, his current incarnation, Daniel Craig—to change Forster's mind. "I think the producers felt that the last time they took a chance was with Daniel and look at how well that turned out. So this time they thought, let's take this further by taking a chance with the director."

Any concerns that Forster had about being able to find the right take on the Bond franchise vanished as soon as he committed to Quantum of Solace, then known as Bond 22. In Casino Royale, Campbell and Craig had already reinvented the character, moving him away from the hi-tech hijinks of the Pierce Brosnan era to a rougher, more realistic breed of secret agent man. Forster knew that he wanted to continue along that path, making a film that would be, as he describes it, "a ’70s conspiracy thriller with a little Hitchcock thrown in."

The script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis certainly gave him plenty of material to work with. Picking up a mere 20 minutes after Casino Royale left off, the new film finds Bond in hot pursuit of the men who killed his first (and, quite possibly, only) true love, Vesper Lynd. His quest for vengeance brings him into contact with villainous tycoon Dominic Greene (played by Diving Bell and the Butterfly star Mathieu Amalric), who has constructed an elaborate plan to seize control of a crucial natural resource by funding a coup in a Latin American country.

"I wanted to confront issues that we're dealing with right now in the real world," Forster says. "And I liked that the film takes off so close after the last one ended. Bond is in a very vulnerable place at this point. He just lost someone he loves and it makes him very vulnerable, which in turn makes him more interesting."

His leading man was equally interested in exploring the emotional pain that exists below Bond's tough exterior. "Daniel is deeply passionate about the character and wants to make sure what he does is right. He's a perfectionist and we worked on the script intensely together. Our visions of Bond were in sync—I could tell him what felt phony to me and vice versa."

One area where they were in complete agreement was finding an emotionally honest way to work the obligatory Bond Girls (played by Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton) into this darker version of the 007 universe. "His relationship with the two girls is very different," Forster explains, adding that this Bond is closer to the commitment-phobic lothario that Ian Fleming described in his books. "His emotional core is not yet healed, and at the same time he's got this very hard shell. We realized we could go a little deeper into the dark side of his character and feel his pain."

A vulnerable Bond may be a more compelling Bond, but Forster is well aware that moviegoers flock to the super-spy's adventures expecting to see a man of action rather than a man of angst. To that end, he worked closely with his second-unit team to craft two major action sequences—a spectacular car chase that opens the film and an aerial dogfight between a Douglas DC-3 and a Savoia-Marchetti that serves as its centerpiece. Although Forster only directed the interior shots of these two sequences (the second unit filmed the exteriors in Mexico and Italy), he did personally oversee the rest of the film's numerous action scenes, which include a boat chase, lots of gunplay and some good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. "I realized that shooting action itself isn't as hard as writing action," Forster says about his crash course in choreographing big-budget set-pieces. "During the writing process, I collaborated closely with my second-unit director who is very talented at writing action, so our sensibilities worked as one. On set, the hardest thing is lighting the action and laying it out. Once you shoot it, you're using multiple cameras and you've got stunt people to rehearse with, so that part isn't that hard."

Of course, accidents can happen on even the safest of sets and the production experienced two incidents that made headlines earlier this year. In April, a stuntman sustained serious injuries while filming the opening car chase in Italy. (Four days earlier, an Aston Martin—Bond's signature car—fell into Lake Garda after skidding off the road during a rainstorm. Nobody was hurt and Forster was not present for either accident.) And in June, newspapers breathlessly reported that Craig had been sent to the hospital after injuring his hand on set. "That was a small injury and we were shooting the next day," Forster says now. "And the accident in Italy was tragic, but fortunately the stuntman is fine now and out of the hospital."

The worldwide coverage both these incidents received, though, just made clear to Forster how intensely the Bond films are monitored by fans and journalists alike. "When I first accepted the movie, I thought it would be an interesting journey, but I didn't realize how large the fanbase for Bond is. Each film becomes an event. Usually, I like to make one film after another so I don't have to do any press, but on this one I want to observe the spectacle because when do you get the opportunity to watch something like this unfold?"

Although Forster always knew he was signing on to be part of something bigger than himself, he doesn't hesitate in saying that the finished film will completely reflect his creative vision. "The producers were so supportive and I pretty much had a free hand. They fought for my vision and agreed to let me bring my own crew of key people, including my regular director of photography [Roberto Schaefer] and my editor [Matt Chesse]. People ask me was it so difficult to do this movie and I just say that compared to The Kite Runner, it was a vacation! On that film, I was in the middle of nowhere and had no resources. It was a struggle every day to get that movie made. Here I had a support system and could really focus on the creative."

That said, there was at least one area where Forster didn't have much input: the Sony release's controversial title, Quantum of Solace. Since it was announced in January, more ink has been spilled about those three words in newspapers, magazines and blog posts than most entertainment stories this year. "The title was basically presented to me by Barbara and Michael," Forster says. "At first I didn't know what to make of it, but after a while it grew on me. Now I love it." (Go ahead…you tell him that he may be the only one.)

With only six weeks to go until he has to deliver the finished version of Quantum of Solace in time for the film's U.K. premiere in late October (it hits U.S. screens on Nov. 14), Forster sounds tired, but happy about his time riding shotgun alongside the world's most famous spy. "People seem really excited about it, so there's a lot of positive energy in the air, which is really nice." The producers are clearly happy that their risky choice paid off—according to Forster, they already offered him the chance to direct Bond 23, which is set to be released in 2010.

But back-to-back blockbusters aren't in the director’s future right now, although he doesn't rule out re-teaming with 007 somewhere down the road. "I feel like I need to breathe a bit first," he confides. "I'm going to take some time off and then do something smaller next and go from there. I've always wanted to explore different genres; I like science fiction and would maybe want to do a musical one day. I feel I have to try all these things. I might fail, but to try is always the exciting part."