Daniel Craig is pictured here in a scene from Casino Royale with a small cut on his face. That fake cut on his face is nothing compared to what really happened to him while filming the latest Bond flick, when he cracked open his face and sliced off the tip of his finger.

HOLLYWOOD -- The name of the new James Bond movie happens to be the roll-right-off-your-tongue Quantum of Solace, but for a while there it was sounding more like Trouble-0-7.

What with star Daniel Craig busting open his face one week and slicing off the tip of his finger the next, assorted car accidents sending a stuntman to the hospital with serious head injuries and plunging an Aston Martin into the lake -- not to mention a mysterious fire that destroyed one of the film's Pinewood Studio sets -- there have been not-so-murmured whispers of a Bond curse.

To be fair, what with all that high-stakes stunt work, accidents have been par for the course on many a Bond movie, but, sensing something must be done to protect its most valuable franchise, MGM snuck a sneak preview trailer online last week.

It certainly plays like gangbusters, assuring Craig fans that producers haven't messed with the gritty success of the last installment. Yet rumours suggest they're not quite out of the woods.

There has been industry talk that one of the main reasons for all that on-set chaos might have to do with the fact that while first-time Bond director Marc Forster has earned a deserved reputation for versatility (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball, The Kite Runner), he might just be over his head with the kind of hair-splitting action the Bond movies demand.

Or maybe things just started going south when it appeared that Amy Winehouse was going to sing the big theme song. At last look, both Annie Lennox and Leona Lewis were in the running.

The viewing public will find out if all the on-set drama was worth it when Quantum of Solace (assuming that's the title they stick with) arrives in North American theatres on Nov. 7.

Brits, meanwhile, will get their Bond fix a week earlier, on Oct. 31, as in Halloween.

Hmm, maybe that would explain the curse!

More Artists