“I always saw the villain as someone from next door,’ Forster explains. “There’s this ambiguity about Amalric that he could be anybody. Where Greene comes from isn’t explained. I thought it was more unexpected to cast an innocent-looking man for a character who is really creepy and dangerous. Greene has decent impulses: he cares about the environment, but at the same time wants to get rich through that. A lot of corporations do the same thing.”

–Director Marc Forster talking about Dominic Greene, the lead villain in Quantum of Solace played by Mathieu Amalric.

“The building is supposed to be an “eco-hotel,” a buried tropical oasis amid this wasteland designed to lure the rich and powerful with the latest environmental technology. The hotel is a front for the villain, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric, the French star of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), a tycoon using a “Save the Earth” facade to hide his plan to seize control of part of South America’s water supply.”

Oh, snap! So Mr. Greene isn’t really “green”! Get it?!

Let’s hope this guy converts a solar concentrator or two into a laser beam or something — because seriously, we can’t do with another lame villain like that Elliott Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. “I’m going to take over the world’s cable networks!” Oooh…scary!

One question remains: Will this new eco-villain offer Tom Cruise Purple at the eco-hotel?

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