Shooting Spectre: Art On A Bigger Palette

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“It’s a very rich playground for a cinematographer to play around in,” says Spectre cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema about working in the 007 universe. “The producers are interested in creating something that is genuinely to be enjoyed on a big screen. It’s an adventure. You’re taken through different countries, through different environments. It’s very much art on a bigger palette.”

Van Hoytema had never worked with director Sam Mendes prior to Spectre. The pair formed an instant rapport.

“You start talking, you click, and feel that you can maybe do something interesting together,” he says. “If you look at all the films Sam did before, they were always amazingly shot which is not only thanks to hiring a great DP, but also having a very specific vision as a director plus an incredible sensitivity for visual language. So, when I started talking to him about Spectre, he was very much interested in talking about art, painting and light as an emotional vehicle to tell a story.”

A lifelong fan of the series, van Hoytema relished every moment of his 007 adventure. “Making a Bond film almost makes you feel like you’re in a Bond film,” he laughs. “You’re always energised. You get to a hotel, you go out to dinner somewhere, and then in the morning you’re out in the field. Your whole landscape has changed but it’s important because you’re also trying to give the audience that experience of the world.” 

Yet it wasn’t just stepping into Bond’s shoes that excited van Hoytema. It was also the freedom to experiment and create on the grandest scale, a remit that was passed down from the very top. “Michael and Barbara are two of my favourite producers of all time. They told me we’ll get you what you need, that is our job. But you have to come up with a spectacle. Very early on, we were instructed to not worry too much about the practical side of things. That is a very interesting place to start because Sam started to dream up these crazy shots. Very often you have producers that will ask you at a very early stage to be pragmatic because, if you’re not pragmatic, things might start to cost more. But Barbara and Michael’s assignment was very clear: dream it up, and then we figure out how we can do this.” And Spectre begins with perhaps the most ambitious, audacious opening to any 007 film ever….

MEXICO

Spectre opens with James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Estrella (Stephanie Sigman) strolling through the Day of the Dead parade, a riot of sound and colour held annually in Mexico City. The first five minutes of the sequence are portrayed as one continuous tracking shot.

“The idea to do it in one shot was very much Sam’s. He thought it’d be very interesting to get into the film in a real-time experience. You’re with Bond step by step. There’s no clever editing that moves things forwards or backwards but you are getting to experience this amazing atmosphere in real time. I think it became a very exciting one-shot take.” 

In reality, the shot was a series of four shots meticulously planned out and edited together by Lee Smith to look like one seamless camera move.

“Once we were doing it, the solutions we came up with might look crazy or ridiculous, but step by step, we figured it out. There are some sneaky stitches (edits) in there. It was a total technical puzzle. It’s a sequence that is shot in Mexico City, but also in London. The camera starts in Mexico City, goes into a hotel lobby, then into an elevator and then we are Pinewood Studios. We go through Pinewood Studios, and then out into Mexico City again when Bond walks across the roof, and back into Pinewood at the end (for the exploding hotel). It required a lot of ingenious thinking from my grips. They came up with these incredible installations and ways to shoot it. My camera operator Lucas Bieland was pivotal in making this all work, so there were a lot of minds, a lot of thoughts and a lot of enthusiasm to bring this to life.”

ROME

After Mexico, Bond heads to Rome, Italy and infiltrates a clandestine conference of a terrorist organisation run by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), later revealed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. To heighten the mystery, van Hoytema cast the meeting in sinister shadow.

“It was very much part of the way we envisioned the classicism of Rome. The colours, the contrast, the darkness. But we also have that whole idea about Bond seeing Blofeld and Blofeld seeing Bond. It needed to be a somewhat theatrical reveal. He turns into the light and looks at him and Bond sees him for the first time. It’s a very important story point. So in order to get away with a reveal like that, you’re already pushed into a darker environment, a more sort of secretive meeting. It needed to feel like a cult.

After Bond and Blofeld lock eyes, 007 flees in his modified Aston Martin DB10 and is pursued by Blofeld’s lead assassin Hinx (Dave Bautista) driving a Jaguar C-X75 through the nighttime streets of the Eternal City.

“We wanted Rome to be lush and golden. I remembered Rome from much earlier. I remember it as the streets looked so painterly, and those sodium lights made everything look orange and monochromatic. In a way, it’s a colour that’s very close to candlelight. Of course, when we came to Rome, the whole city is modernised, and there are these white LEDs everywhere. But we wanted to bring those streets a little bit back towards that sort of more orangey, more romantic feel I remembered. So, it gave it this painterly golden glow.”

“The car chase was a very difficult assignment because it was all over the city. Of course, it needs to feel like the Rome we had figured out. I had a second unit director of photography on that, Jalio Faber, who did an incredible job pushing through that look we needed out of it. I think the car chase, in spite of all the action, still has that full golden glow over it. That was a nice touch.”

AUSTRIA

Bond’s mission takes him to Austria, where he joins forces with psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) who works at the exclusive medical center The Hoffler Klinik. The exteriors of the clinic were shot on location at the ICE-Q restaurant at the top of the 3000-metre Gaislachkogl mountain in Sölden while the interior was created on The Richard Attenborough Stage at Pinewood Studios and posed a major challenge for van Hoytema. 

“It was one of the easiest and most difficult lighting setups ever for me. It’s a glass cubicle but Barbara again allowed us to dream big, so we figured out a way to make it look real. We didn’t want a blue screen, so we literally hung a mountainscape from the ceiling all the way down. We lit it from the back. It was a crazy big rig like a rock concert. But it meant we could film 360 degrees into a very credible environment, minimising the post-production we had to do. Sometimes you want to be on the set and figure out where to go, what to do. You want to play around and this really allowed us to find the right sort of perspectives through the building. I always believe the more realism you infuse on the spot where you shoot, the less people need to imagine and the more energy they can spend in adapting to the atmosphere and move around in it freely.” 

When the clinic comes under attack from Hinx and his crew, Madeleine is kidnapped and driven away. Bond gives chase in a plane, forcing the convoy to crash and spiriting Madeleine away to Tangier. The epic pursuit was captured mostly by the action unit, led by director Alexander Witt, but this didn’t stop van Hoytema from wishing he was in on the action.

“We always shoot parts of the big action sequences. In Austria, we had the second unit stay behind, this gigantic team of incredible people. Sometimes you can only do three shots a day because the shots are so complicated. If you have a plane on a wire coming down a very thin line of trees, three or four cars and explosions going off, you prep this for days and then you get one crack at the shots and then you decide if you reset or not. But that’s pretty much what you’ve been doing that shooting day. While on the first unit, you’ve got six pages of dialogue to get through on the actors’ clocks. There’s a whole different dynamic to that. I always feel there’s a missed chance with second unit. I always feel like, ‘Oh I want to stay and I want to do it’ but, unfortunately, that’s not the reality of the time you have to actually make a film.”

EN ROUTE TO TANGIER

On a train bound for Morocco, Bond and Madeleine get to know each other over dinner, an intimate moment interrupted by Hinx who engages Bond in a brutal fistfight through different carriages.

“This was very laborious. The problem was in the beginning of shooting the scene, Daniel got hurt and that meant he couldn’t do the things he would normally do. So that changes your way of thinking a little bit. You start working with doubles, but it restricts your freedom and in order to make it feel organic, it becomes laborious. We also didn’t want to compromise the scene in any way because of what happened to Daniel. It just was a lot more work than we anticipated. This was one of these scenes where first unit and second unit became very closely integrated. I was doing first unit in London and we were shooting, shooting and shooting. Then after 12 hours of shooting, Sam and I would go to the second unit and be there for another six hours. There was a lot of that towards the end. We were getting tired.”

THE SAHARA

Bond and Madeleine arrive at Oberhauser’s base in the Sahara. Oberhauser quickly reveals his true colours (and identity), subjecting Bond to neurological torture, before 007 uses the Q-Dept explosive wristwatch to break free. Unlike the torture scene in Casino Royale which takes place in a dark, dank abandoned barge, this Spectre interrogation happens in a brightly lit, hazy, almost surgical room.

“I remember there was a difficult one because it’s an airy, light hospital room in the middle of a desert. It was important for the interiors to feel the Moroccan desert seeping through into that white room. [Production designer] Dennis Gassner conceptualised that room. I still wanted that feeling of scorching sun in there, almost blinding, almost a little dreamy. I just felt the interiors have to feel like the exterior deserts. Bond is awakening there and you really want to feel that you’re really in a different environment.”

While the interiors of SPECTRE HQ were shot at Pinewood, the exteriors were created at Gara Medouar, a horseshoe-shaped geological formation near Sijilmasa in the Sahara desert.

“The exterior of the base was for the most part non-existent because it was CGI. We were basically shooting on paths that led to nowhere. All the time, we had to envision, ‘Okay, the headquarters will be here’. It requires lot of imagination in order to make that work in your head. We ended up building a lot inside Pinewood Studios.” 

In true 007 fashion, Bond escapes and destroys Blofeld’s lair in a huge explosion — special effects supervisor Chris Corbould employed 2,223 gallons of kerosene to fuel the huge blast. 

“The explosion was very interesting, because it was huge. It was the biggest explosion I’ve ever filmed. It actually made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. It was fricking exciting to do it. It was our last thing we did in Morocco, and it was like we went out with a bang.”

LONDON

Bond returns to London to thwart Blofeld’s planned global surveillance system Nine Eyes. The climax involves Bond chasing Blofeld’s helicopter in a speedboat down the Thames, bringing the aircraft crashing down on Westminster Bridge. The production shut down a section of the river from Lambeth Bridge to Hungerford Bridge, giving van Hoytema the daunting technical prospect of lighting a huge area at night.

“I was very scared that we wouldn’t see the helicopter. It’s so much about this interaction between Bond and the helicopter at night. I was just so panicky that it would become a CG helicopter and then it would be illuminated with some sort of light that came from nowhere. And then, of course, we’re in London, the home base, and the city is laid out around you, so you want to see that. I started lighting the sh*t out of that whole area.

“I have an incredible gaffer, Dave Smith, who helped me conceptualise it. We started prepping that scene very early. We began by exploring the access to buildings and light sources. It’s interesting because, compared to Rome, London is portrayed as a much more modern city where the street lights are more neutral. It’s important in a sequence like that to feel the space around you, to feel the magnitude, and in order to feel that magnitude, you have to light it in order to make it exist. 

“There is one instance that I will never forget. Dave Smith and I went out in the centre of the Thames at magic hour and we sped all the way up to the front of Parliament. We had a dimmer board operator with an iPad with us, and we’re just floating in the middle of the Thames, and the sun is setting, getting darker. We had control over the lights around us in the city and, on some very pivotal buildings, we had some powerful lights on the roof that would just light up the night sky, so the helicopter would catch some sort of exposure there. And then we did it. It was one of the most exciting set-ups I’ve ever done.”

A DREAM UNLOCKED

Van Hoytema had grown up watching 007 movies (“It was always a big event, the music, the anticipation”) and was delighted that shooting Spectre lived up to his sky-high expectations.

“A James Bond film is a thing you want to have on your CV and once it’s on there, it will always be there. To me, it’s a beautiful memory, but it’s not only because it’s a nostalgic thing. I also love the idea that in this world, there are people out there like Michael and Barbara who believe in this old-school idea about what cinema could be and could mean to people. Every film is supposed to give people an experience that they take with them. To be part of that is absolutely a dream come true for me.”

Licence To Kill Remastered Soundtrack Announced

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A remastered and expanded double CD edition of Licence To Kill‘s score will be released this Spring. Now available to pre-order, the Michael Kamen soundtrack contains never before released music, using recordings from the EON and MGM archives.

Oscar®-nominated composer Michael Kamen joined the Bond music fold for Timothy Dalton’s second film. His robust and propulsive score perfectly complements the 1989 film’s harder-edged storyline, helmed by five-time 007 director John Glen. Kamen honors the series’ musical legacy with exciting variations of the classic “James Bond Theme,” while bringing his own unique style to the world of 007.

Limited to 5,000 units, the release is produced by Neil S. Bulk and mastered by Doug Schwartz from 1/4″ stereo tapes and 3-track mag provided by MGM. Two hours, 29 minutes of music is spread over two CDs, with Disc 2 housing eight tracks of additional music, and both versions of the film’s title song performed by Gladys Knight. The commemorative edition includes an exclusive booklet featuring new liner notes by film music journalist Jon Burlingame.

Pre-order now at 007Store.com.

007 Gold Collection From Orlebar Brown

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60 years of Goldfinger and 50 years of The Man with The Golden Gun are commemorated in a new collection from Orlebar Brown. Designs are inspired by the signature style, motifs and colours of both films.

Highlights include swim shorts paying homage to 007’s Goldfinger Glen check grey suit, laser-cut shorts inspired by the laser room, a reimagining of Scaramanga’s tracksuit, a new interpretation of Bond’s tropical safari shirt, and a zebra print two-piece based on the Scaramanga island beach scene. The range features embroidered details, repeat prints, gold-plated hardware and monogrammed jacquard, in the highest quality silk, linen and cotton toweling.

Available to pre-order at 007Store.com now.

 

The Man With The Golden Gun And Moonraker Soundtracks Announced

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Remastered and expanded double CD editions of The Man with The Golden Gun and Moonraker’s scores will be released to celebrate their respective 50th and 45th anniversaries. Now available to pre-order, the John Barry soundtracks contain never before released music, using recordings from the EON and MGM archives. 

The Man With The Golden Gun’s 50th anniversary set features the score in chronological order on Disc 1, plus five never-before-released tracks including source music recorded for the film and an instrumental demo version of Lulu’s title track. Disc 2 presents the original 1974 soundtrack, newly assembled for this release.

Moonraker’s 45th anniversary package features previously unreleased music too, with thirteen additional tracks. CD1 is the film score in chronological order, plus eight extras such as source music and instrumentals. CD2 houses the original 1979 soundtrack, plus demo versions of the title track with early lyrics performed by Oscar and GRAMMY winner Paul Williams.

Both editions are limited to 5,000 units and include commemorative booklets written by Jon Burlingame. Pre-order now at 007Store.com.

Action Unit Photographer Jasin Boland

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“I’ve done some big films but nothing compares to James Bond,” says action stills photographer Jasin Boland. “The thing about Bond is just the awesome locations. I really love the snow in the mountains, that’s my happy place. Trudging around through there with all the equipment, that’s what I love to do.”

Capturing vibrant, dynamic images on Skyfall, Spectre and No Time To Die, Boland’s interest in photography began with creative attempts at skipping school in Australia. “We would put the red light on in the darkroom and go down to the beach to surf,” he says. After taking photos for his school and having served an apprenticeship in newspaper publishing, Boland gravitated to action photography, an interest inspired by his experience watching 007 films as a child. 

“I watched all the older Bond films with my dad,” Boland reveals. “The first film I went to see with just my buddies was Live And Let Die. I really remember that clearly. I swear that that is the reason why I got into action films to start with. I’ve now watched every James Bond film with my son.”

So, for Boland, what makes the perfect James Bond image?

“I was asked just the other day. ‘If you could go back and work on any film, what would it be?’, he says. “For me, it would be to go back and work on The Man With The Golden Gun and photograph that corkscrew jump. The perfect James Bond image is something that makes you stop and go, ‘Wow!’”

Below, Boland talks us through some of his ‘wow’ images from Spectre and No Time To Die…

SPECTRE (2015)

Having infiltrated a SPECTRE meeting in Rome, Bond (Daniel Craig) is discovered and makes a getaway in his newly stolen DB10, chased by the network’s top assassin Hinx (Dave Bautista) in a Jaguar C-X75. The pursuit takes in narrow alleyways and huge boulevards as Bond gets to grips with the new gadgetry.

ROAD TEST

“This shot was taken at over 100 miles an hour. The camera is on the actual camera crane mount and the boys will let me sit in the car, and fire my [camera] trigger. Sometimes if I can’t be in the vehicle, they will do it for me. But most of the time, I get the opportunity to do that. They might do 10 takes of it but I only get to do one run. You just don’t know what you’re gonna get but it’s better than sitting on the side of the road getting nothing. I really like this shot because it’s really weird. I didn’t really like it in the beginning. and then I looked at it five or six years later, and was like, ‘Oh, you know what? It’s actually pretty cool.’ What makes it the coolest is how you got it. It was a really tricky shot to pull off.”

JUMP STREET

“To get this shot I’m leaning out into the roadway. I’ve got a physical camera in my hands with a remote and a stunt guy, Frosty, behind me. He’s holding onto my Blackrapid Strap, which has a camera strap and other safety sash belt as well. He’s got hold of me there. And as the car has jumped, I’m firing the remote that is on the ground. I’m also firing my physical camera, and I’m holding that trigger down until I get pulled into the doorway into safety.

“When you are photographing action like that, anything can go wrong. But we are so well prepared with safety, it’s very unlikely for something to happen. I’ve already checked with safety. I’ve checked with stunts. I’ve checked with the first assistant director, and then I’ve told everyone where I’m going to be. Even if that car has bounced wrong, inertia carries it forward. So, by them pulling me out of the way, anything is just gonna fly past me. It could bounce off a wall, and then maybe fly in, but that’s completely unlikely.”

Leaving Rome, Bond heads to Altuassee in Austria to track down the mysterious Pale King aka Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a Quantum operative. After White is exposed to thallium poisoning he takes his own life and Bond looks to find his daughter Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) who is taken hostage by Hinx. As Swann is spirited away in a convoy of cars, Bond tracks her in a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, smashing through an Alpine lodge to crash into a procession and rescue Madeleine.

PLANE SAILING

“This was really tricky. That shot is from a remote rig as well. I was actually in the window of a house straight in front of it. I had that camera on the ground — that’s where this shot is from — and then I had another camera on the left. Also, if you’re looking at it, you’ll see in the snow, there’s some square white boxes. That’s where the cine cameras were and I had another camera in there. But the one that worked is further in front.”

NO TIME TO DIE (2021)

No Time To Die’s pre-credit sequence sees Bond (Daniel Craig) and Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) travelling through the ancient hilltop town of Matera in Italy. Paying his respects at Vesper Lynd’s tomb, Bond is knocked off his feet by an explosion. Trying to make his way back to his hotel, 007 comes under attack from Safin (Rami Malek)’s operative Primo (Dali Benssalah). Following a bruising fight, Bond steals Primo’s Triumph Scrambler motorcycle, speeding up steps and jumping over walls in a race to get back to Madeleine.

EASY RIDER

“This is the easiest shot to do in the world. It’s all about patience and timing. I had minimal time to get into that position. I had a camera on the crane, I’m actually standing in front of the church in the doorway. So, I’m photographing it as he’s coming up the jump at the same time firing off the trigger. There’s a lot going on. I do actually love that shot but it was one of the easiest shots to pull off.”

HIGH FLYER

“In this one, he’s wearing a cranial helmet. It’s protection, but it’s not like wearing a full-face helmet. It’s so that they can do face replacement.”

POSTER 

“This was at the beginning of Bond going up the stairs for take off. He starts off sideways and comes into the shot. I knew that it was going to be really good. I knew it was going to be a powerful image, but I didn’t realise it was going to be the IMAX poster. It was actually my first James Bond poster. So I was pretty stoked. I was like ‘WHAT’S THIS? A JAMES BOND POSTER! NO WAY!’ It was pretty crazy.”

After returning to the hotel, Bond confronts Madeleine, believing she betrayed him to SPECTRE. Forcing her into his trusty Aston Martin DB5, the car is immediately pursued by Primo and his men. The chase comes to its climax when the Aston Martin is rammed by Primo’s Jaguar Land Rover, bringing it to an abrupt halt in a deserted town square. As black clad henchmen start hitting the bulletproof car with machine gun fire. Bond starts ‘donutting’ the car, spraying bullets 360 degrees from the headlamp machine guns and covering the square with a smokescreen.

DONUT DANGER

“I definitely had five cameras on it and obviously my physical camera as well. That was a lucky stroke because you have a very small window to set something up. Setting the camera up underneath the camera on the crane is a big ask. This one really came off. That’s one of my favourite shots of all time because it was super difficult to get really lucky. With these remote rigs, you’re shooting completely blind, so you’re having to just get timing and hope that you’re going to get something out of it. This was one that was one of those cases. When they come off, it’s really exciting.”

A QUICK GETAWAY

“This may actually be my favourite shot. Everyone who looks at it is just completely blown away. It was a really, really difficult shot to get. We set up in the beginning and it was just meant to be the car coming out of the donut. But then Alexander (Witt, Action Unit Director) was like, “No, let’s get it coming out of the donut and then flying off down the street.” We all set up our cameras, and then all of a sudden, everything in shot was too dangerous to be manned. I had to set up a complete remote rig within a minute. I’d set it up on a tripod on the ground, then there was nowhere to be except behind a big metal Church door. I am actually blind behind a church door with a remote holding it up as high as I possibly can hoping that I can get through these walls. All I could hear was, ‘We’re rolling! Action!’ There was a squeal of tyres and I’m pressing the button. This is actually framed on my wall in my house.”

Bond later learns from Blofeld that Madeleine didn’t betray him in Italy so tracks her down in Norway. Finding her with her daughter Mathilde (Lisa Dorah Sonnet), 007 fears for their safety and spirits them away in Madeleine’s old land cruiser. A chase ensues (with the Ardverikie Estate in Scotland standing in for rural Norway) with the land cruiser chased cross country by Logan Ash (Billy Magnusson) and his forces.

“A lot of the time with the remote rigs, you don’t get a usable shot. With the Land Rover Defender rolling towards the camera, it hit the camera and knocked it over. But, it’s all about how you set your cameras up so that they don’t get damaged. I set them up so that when they get hit, they just fall over. Or I have a camera mount which is flat bottomed and, if it gets hit, it just slides, so you’re unlikely to do a lot of damage.”

LOCH AND LOAD

“On No Time To Die, when the car is flying off towards the loch I’m actually down next to the wall on top of a big rock. Now, the rock isn’t so big that if I fall off, I’m going to hurt myself. But the rock is big enough that I can jump down behind it. It was too dangerous to have two of us there so I’m on my own and using my judgement.”

YOU’LL BELIEVE A CAR CAN FLY

“Everyone that sees this shot just goes, ‘I want to hear classical music whenever I see that image’. This floating car and you just want to hear some Beethoven or Mozart or something.”

The 007 At Burlington Arcade

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In homage to the 1964 classic film, Goldfinger, the prestigious Burlington Arcade in Mayfair created a unique 007 experience – The 007.

The 007 featured two exclusively designed bars, which were open from 18 September until 31 December 2024, where fans could enjoy a dash of 007 with signature cocktails specially created in partnership with Belvedere, Blackwell Rum, Champagne Bollinger and The Macallan and they could seek out iconic movie props including Oddjob’s hat, a Fort Knox gold bar, Goldfinger’s golf shoes and the spyhole clock from his private plane, never before exhibited.

The first floor featured a unique 007 boutique offering collaborations and collectibles to purchase, including a range of Burlington Arcade exclusive pieces.

There was also a silent auction for a limited number of The Macallan’s highly collectible 60th Anniversary Decades whisky sets, which raised funds for Into Film’s Every Child A Film-maker Campaign.

Burlington Arcade is a landmark retail destination in the heart of London’s Mayfair. 007 brands have been in the Arcade since 1936, these include the longest trading retailer N.Peal, Crockett and Jones, Globe-Trotter, and The Royal Mint. Other 007 partners positioned in close proximity to Burlington Arcade are Orlebar Brown, BOGNER, Assouline, and Lock & Co Hatters.

“Anyone want to play poker now?”

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New poker and backgammon sets have joined Globe-Trotter’s 007 collection of travel accessories. The new games are designed for life on the move, presented in signature blue and grey cases, inspired by attaché case design. 

The sets celebrate some of Bond’s most iconic, high-stakes moments. From Octopussy, where 007 matches Kamal Khan and his ‘lucky’ trick dice in a game of backgammon with a Fabergé egg, to Casino Royale’s memorable game of Texas hold’em poker hosted by Le Chiffre.

James Bond’s history with the games even goes behind the scenes of the films. Producer Cubby Broccoli and Roger Moore played backgammon between shooting on the sets throughout his time playing 007. On location in Greece for For Your Eyes Only, the pair played for high stakes throughout the shoot, but somehow came out almost even by the last day. “We used to play during all the breaks from shooting and the directors always had a terrible job getting me back into the set when we were in the middle of a game. If Cubby was winning, he absolutely would not let me go.” – Sir Roger Moore.

On Casino Royale, Producer Michael G. Wilson hosted poker sessions with the cast and crew to help the writers develop an end to Le Chiffre’s card game. Neal Purvis took inspiration from one of these sessions when he lost to the same hand Bond held on screen.

“The card game was probably the most difficult scene I’ve ever had to film,” Director Martin Campbell recalled. “It’s one thing to shoot a game of chemin de fer or 21, that’s very simple. When you’re playing Texas hold’em poker with ten players around a table, that’s tough because it’s a more complex game and with ten players all looking at each other. It’s very tricky to film.”

Globe-Trotter’s new poker set includes a set of five dice, poker chips, a dealer counter and a pack of one-of-a-kind Elephant John playing cards. The set is finished with a branded metal plaque and signature 007 engraving.

The backgammon set features a leather board, and separate compartments for the dice, counters and shakers. The counters are in mother of pearl finish while the shakers have been crafted from high quality leather. 

Both sets are now available at 007Store.com.

Spotlight On Blofeld

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The founder and leader of criminal organisation SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), Ernst Stavro Blofeld has been Bond’s chief antagonist across the 007 films, played by different actors but united by the same sinister qualities: ruthlessness, piercing intelligence, a way with words and the ability to mastermind the most ambitious, devilish schemes. 

Referred to only as Number One, Blofeld’s first appearance came in From Russia With Love, plotting revenge on board his luxury yacht for the death of Dr. No. Played by Anthony Dawson (the voice came courtesy of Eric Pohlmann), his face is never seen but he is glimpsed stroking a white Persian cat, soon to become a trademark of the character. Absent from Goldfinger, the character returned in Thunderball, this time hidden behind shutters and glass as he chairs a meeting of Spectre’s top executives, two of which he ruthlessly electrocutes.

You Only Live Twice featured the character’s first fully visual appearance. At producer Harry Saltzman’s suggestion, Jan Werich, a highly regarded Czech actor, was cast but director Lewis Gilbert had reservations. The role was recast with English actor Donald Pleasence.

When Blofeld returned in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service it was in the guise of actor Telly Savalas. “I found him a joy to work with,” recalled director Peter Hunt. 

Blofeld’s plan is to contaminate and sterilise the world’s food supply using biological warfare, carried by his brainwashed Angels Of Death from his snowy hideaway in Piz Gloria. When Bond (George Lazenby) thwarts Blofeld’s scheme, he takes revenge by instructing Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) to assassinate Bond’s new wife Tracy (Diana Rigg), leaving the secret agent bereft. 

With a vengeful 007 on his trail, in Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld creates decoys of himself, building an orbital satellite weapon encrusted with diamonds in order to blackmail the world’s government, offering nuclear supremacy to the highest bidder. This time, Blofeld was played by Charles Gray who also played British intelligence operative Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice. 

Blofeld was reintroduced in Daniel Craig’s fourth film Spectre. “That clarified everything in terms of what the story might be, how it might personally connect to Bond in some way,” said Spectre screenwriter John Logan. “The idea that Blofeld has been orchestrating all these Daniel Craig stories for a particular end was very exciting.”

Taking his cue from Fleming, Logan initially conceived Blofeld as an arms dealer operating out of Africa, tying into real life events in Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. Other ideas included using the Japanese volcano from You Only Live Twice as a call-back to Blofeld’s penchant for secret bases.

The story evolved to explore the interpersonal connection between Bond and Blofeld. In the short story Octopussy, Bond refers to a man called Oberhauser who taught him how to ski and became a “father figure”. Spectre’s story saw the orphaned Bond – referring back to events in Skyfall – sent to Austria to live with Oberhauser and his son Franz. Bond becomes the golden boy that fosters a deep-rooted hatred in Franz. Franz kills his father, fakes his own death and reinvents himself as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, hellbent on destroying 007 for all the anguish he inflicted on him as a child.

“I thought that was a really cool idea that both unlocked a section of Bond’s past but also linked him to all the various sources of his pain, as Blofeld puts it,” said director Sam Mendes, the events of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall now revealed to be part of Blofeld’s masterplan.

To play Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Mendes cast Christoph Waltz, best known for playing intelligent villainous roles for Quentin Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, both of which won him Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

“We were trying to find somebody who was the right age, the right look”, says Mendes. “I like very much that moment in Rome when Bond first sees him from behind and feels like he recognised him and Blofeld senses someone looking at him and kind of twitches. That sense of I know who this person is. That was something I was trying to construct, a figure who has known Bond for years and observed him from afar and been behind everything which, for me, is the nature of the supervillain, someone who is really pulling the strings.”

As the leader of SPECTRE, Blofeld is creating and manipulating global surveillance alliance the Nine Eyes programme as a means of accessing high level intelligence. As Bond’s foster brother, Blofeld is determined to inflict maximum agony, torturing Bond at his Saharan Crater Facility by drilling into his brain – 007 escapes via his explosive wristwatch – and then by attempting to blow him up in the ruins of the SIS building.

In No Time To Die, Blofeld is incarcerated in Belmarsh prison but still manages to control SPECTRE via a hi-tech ocular implant. Following the assassination of every SPECTRE operative by Safin (Rami Malek), Blofeld became the sole remaining member of the organisation and Bond is sent to interrogate him in his cell.

“We struggled with that scene,” recalled Daniel Craig. “I wanted it to get very personal very quickly and I wanted them to talk to each other like brothers. I had a rush of inspiration one night and – pretty badly – wrote an outline and gave it to Phoebe [Waller-Bridge]. I think I’ve got pretty good ideas. My writing is not good, it’s okay but on No Time To Die I could write things down, then sit with Phoebe and she improved it no end.”

The finished scene culminates with Blofeld revealing he was behind the assassination attempt at Vesper Lynd (Eva Green)’s grave, framing it as a betrayal by Bond’s partner Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). An enraged Bond strangles Blofeld only to pull back but unwittingly infecting the criminal mastermind with deadly nanobots that spread a killer virus with the slightest touch. 

The death of Blofeld in No Time To Die is the culmination of a seven film series that charts a thrilling game of cat and mouse between two well matched opponents. As Spectre screenwriter John Logan once said: “Like Holmes needs his Moriarty, Bond needs his Blofeld.” In becoming Bond’s arch-enemy, the enigmatic, Machiavellian nemesis has cemented his place as one of the great villains in movie history.

Day Of The Dead At Burlington Arcade

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Join us to celebrate Day of the Dead at The 007, Burlington Arcade on Thursday 31 October through Saturday 2 November. 

Brought to life in Spectre’s epic opening sequence, the Day of the Dead festival makes its way from the heart of Mexico City to London’s Mayfair with special activities and surprises over all three floors of The 007. 

Feast on spicy Day of the Dead cocktails and delicious Mexican snacks at the bar, served by staff wearing authentic costumes and accessories from the EON archive. See original handmade props from the parade scene, and head upstairs to the 007 Boutique to find an exclusive Dia de Muertos 2024 collectors poster, available from Thursday to Saturday.  

The 007 Bar & Boutique, 12-13 Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0QJ.

Rolls-Royce’s Phantom Goldfinger Is Revealed

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Rolls-Royce have unveiled their one-of-one Phantom Goldfinger, inspired by Auric Goldfinger’s Phantom III Sedanca de Ville from the 1964 film.

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the third James Bond adventure, Goldfinger’s iconography and plot are explored within the motor car through a range of bespoke features.

The striking two-tone design has been colour-matched to the original Phantom used in the film, while The Spirit of Ecstasy at the prow of Phantom Goldfinger has a unique finish which  is a subtle reference to the film’s gold-smuggling story.

Considered elements within the interior include a hidden vault containing a solid 18-carat ‘Speedform’ gold bar and a gold-plated putter encased in the boot, in homage to Bond’s first encounter with Goldfinger during a round of golf at Stoke Park. The inside of the glovebox is debossed with Goldfinger’s iconic quote: “This is Gold, Mr Bond. All my life, I have been in love with its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.”

The internal centrepiece is a hand-drawn, stainless steel artwork in the Phantom’s gallery depicting an isoline map of the contours of Switzerland’s Furka Pass, the legendary road pivotal to the plot.

 

 

007 x Fabergé Designs Announced

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Two new Fabergé creations have been revealed, celebrating the worlds of Goldfinger and Octopussy. 

The Goldfinger Egg Safe Locket takes inspiration from the Fort Knox gold depository in the 1964 film. Handcrafted in 18k yellow gold, the egg-shaped pendant opens to reveal a responsibly mined heart-shaped ruby dripping with gold. The locket’s opening mechanism is a world first for the luxury jeweller.

The Octopussy Ring is a statement design crafted from 18k gold, detailed with white diamond suckers and tentacles wrapping the finger, while inside the band is a hidden ruby, known only to the wearer. This is the third item in the Octopussy capsule collection, joining the Octopussy Egg Surprise Locket, and Octopussy Egg Objet – read more about these pieces here.

Discover the full 007 x Fabergé range at The 007 Boutique, Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, London, W1J 0QJ and at 007Store.com.

Aston Martin’s DB12 Goldfinger Edition

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Aston Martin have revealed their new DB12 Goldfinger Edition.

Commemorating the third film’s 60th anniversary, the first to feature an Aston Martin, the DB12 Goldfinger Edition is limited to just 60 cars and celebrates the long-standing partnership between the luxury car manufacturer and 007. 

Designed by Q by Aston Martin, the marque’s bespoke personalisation service, the DB12 Goldfinger Edition, incorporates subtle touches from Goldfinger, including its iconic Silver Birch paint colour presentation, striking 21” multi-spoke wheels with a diamond treatment finish, bespoke gold side strakes, and 18k Gold Plated interior accents.

The cars also feature a Prince of Wales check perforation pattern, a nod to a classic Bond suit, with this pattern mirrored on the door inserts, headliner and a unique etched treadplate. The car is crowned with a bright chrome ‘Q’ fender badge, emblazoned with a unique Aston Martin logo in silver with a black enamel, and adorned with a Goldfinger 60th logo plaque.

Goldfinger celebrated its 60th anniversary on 17 September, with commemorations extending until the end of 2024. Aston Martin previously hosted The House of Q pop-up at Mayfair’s Burlington Arcade to mark the 60th earlier this summer, a space that has now been transformed into The 007 bar and boutique which also takes inspiration from Sean Connery’s third adventure as James Bond (open until 31 December).