007?

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big James Bond fan, and since the reboot of the franchise with Casino Royale, I've even started visiting some of the message boards. The latest buzz is that the upcoming Bond film (November, 2008) will be called 007. It's just a rumor at this point, but it makes a lot of sense in the context of the reboot. Casino Royale was all about Bond earning his license to kill and the next film will be about Bond becoming Bond, i.e. 007.

It some respects, it's a bold and controversial choice, much like the casting of Daniel Craig in the role, and I have to say, I love where the series seems to be headed. And that includes hiring Mark Forster (The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction) as the director. In an interview, he sited the exotic locales as one of the reasons he thinks Bond was so popular back in the 60s. But nowadays lots of people travel and so the setting is not quite the draw it once was. According to Forster, the most interesting place for Bond to go now is deep inside himself.

I agree, and I find that to be the case with the characters I create, especially my villains. I want to know what makes them tick. I want to know specific incidences in their childhood that made them become who and what they are today. Very little of their background may end up in the book, but that's not the point. I need to know. Because the most interesting--and often scariest--place for a writer to go is deep inside his character's head.