Spotlight On Dame Judi Dench

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At precisely 11.30am on February 7 1995, Judi Dench stepped onto C stage at Leavesden Studios to begin playing M opposite Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye. It marked the start of a spectacular incarnation of the character, a seven film tenure – plus a cameo in 2015’s Spectre – cemented by Dench’s gravitas and steely intelligence, leavened by a dry wit. As befits such a skilled performer, Dench also conveyed M’s unspoken affection for her operative, without a hint of mawkishness or sentimentality.

After portrayals by Bernard Lee and Robert Brown, the series shift to a female M had its origins in real life. In 1992, Stella Remington was appointed head of M15. “There is now a woman at the head of the British secret service and this Bond film reflects that – quite rightly, in my view,” Dench said. 

Described by Bill Tanner as “the evil queen of numbers”, Dench’s M gives the spy an impromptu reprimand during their first tense first meeting:

M: “You don’t like me, Bond. You don’t like my methods. You think I’m an accountant, a bean counter more interested in my numbers than your instincts.”
Bond: “The thought had occurred to me.”
M: “Good, because I think you’re a sexist misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.”
Bond: “Point taken.”

In a tense confrontation, M sends Bond to investigate the theft of the GoldenEye weapon system. She tells him to “come back alive”, Dench adding an understated touch of warmth.

For 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, M sends Bond to Hamburg to investigate media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), playfully asking 007 to “pump information” from his old flame and now Carver’s wife Paris (Teri Hatcher). The World Is Not Enough provided a more significant role for any M up to that point. “I loved playing the part. On the first Bond film I had three days, on the second one I had five days, and this time 14 days,” Dench said. “What is lovely about the Bond films is that it has got a family atmosphere, because a lot of the same people are used each time. That’s really very nice, because it is like working in a company.” 

Following the death of her fellow Oxford alumni Sir Robert King (David Calder), M is approached by King’s daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceau) to provide protection from anarchist Renard (Robert Carlyle), the man who previously kidnapped Elektra. At the time, M advised Sir Robert not to pay the ransom so, when M arrives in Baku, she is kidnapped by Elektra, who is now in league with her former captor.

Screenwriter Dana Stevens was brought in to rewrite this kidnapping plot-line and add texture to the relationship between M and Elektra. The result saw M thrown into the midst of the action, rewiring the clock to supply power to a GPS locator card Bond had given to her. Dench also became the first M to go head-to-head with the main villain of the film.

Dench presided over a change of 007 actors, appearing in Pierce Brosnan’s final mission Die Another Day (2002) and Daniel Craig’s first adventure Casino Royale (2006).

“Judi Dench can say a hundred words and make them sound wonderful, but can also give one look and break your heart,” Craig said of working opposite her.

In her first film with Craig, Dench portrays M as a mentor-figure, overseeing Bond’s initiation into the 00 programme. She guides Bond’s transformation from a skilled but blinkered, raw recruit to a battle-hardened agent who can see the bigger picture. “She slaps his wrists and sends him on his way,” Daniel Craig said.

Following 2008’s Quantum Of Solace, Skyfall (2012) became the character’s most rounded iteration. It would also become her swansong. The idea of M’s death first appeared in a treatment by writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Director Sam Mendes, who had worked with Dench on the stage, immediately latched onto the bold notion and encouraged Purvis and Wade to start writing a story that built up to M’s passing.

The plot involved cyber-terrorist Silva (Javier Bardem), a former agent who M traded to the Chinese for six agents, looking for revenge over his former boss. To keep her safe, Bond takes M to sanctuary in Skyfall, his old family home in Scotland.

“We wanted to mine the relationship between Bond and M because it is the most significant relationship he has in his life,” says producer Barbara Broccoli during production. “We have two extraordinary actors, and we thought ‘Let’s go all the way,’ and it’s worked extremely well.”

Broccoli and fellow producer Michael G. Wilson broached the character’s demise with the actor over dinner at London restaurant The Wolseley. Contrary to reports in the press at the time, Dench didn’t start crying at the news.

“When I found out M was going to die, I said, ‘Of course she’s got to go but it’s good to go with a bang and a good script’,” said Dench.

The story starts in Turkey, with M ordering Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) to shoot assassin Patrice (Ola Rapace) but she hits Bond instead and he seemingly falls to his death. After an attack on MI6, Bond returns home.

“Emotion cannot come into their relationship,” said Craig. “In the story M has to make sacrifices, Bond being one of them. So, it’s quite difficult for them to have a touchy-feely relationship with each other. In better times and difficult circumstances, they could be very close to each other and that’s the tragedy of that relationship.”

The crucial scene of Bond confronting M at her home was shot at Pinewood Studios. Yet once it was put together, it was decided to restage the scene again two weeks later.

“The scene between M and Bond worked the first time we shot it but it wasn’t quite right,” recalled Mendes. “The relationship was too resolved by the end of the scene so it lacked tension. Their relationship needs to be permanently unresolved, in the same way that your relationship with your parents can never be resolved. It’s never going to be, ‘Good. Now we know we love each other, we can live the rest of our lives peacefully.’ It doesn’t happen so I reshot the scene.”

On March 30 and April 2 2012, Mendes and the crew shot the final confrontation between Silva and M which takes place in the chapel at Skyfall.

 “It really is a gift for an actor to be close to Judi Dench and to be able to play even one scene with her,” said Bardem. “I was afraid because there was some physicality in the scene and of course I didn’t want to hurt her. But she was such a delight. She was doing something very difficult which is to maintain her concentration while I was going through the scene to find different ways of playing it. She was there and just doing her job – such a lady.”

After Bond saves M from Silva, M dies from sustained wounds cradled in Bond’s arms. Shooting the scene was a difficult day for everyone.

“We joked most of the day but it was actually very tough to do because Judi had been part of Bond for 17 years,” remembered Craig. “In the end, during the scene Bond and M genuinely connect and show weakness to each other for the first time.”

“It was really sad,” recalled Mendes. “It was sadder for Daniel and Barbara. Certainly for Barbara. Judi had been part of seven movies, so it was the end of an era for her and Michael. For me it was an opportunity to be directing Judi Dench again, the finest actor I’ve ever worked with, in a scene that was pretty moving. It felt very different on Spectre without Judi’s presence.” 

Following her death, M bequeaths Bond her Royal Doulton Bulldog, revealing her true name to be Olivia Mansfield. A poignant goodbye ending a perfect character arc, beautifully realised by one of our finest actors. 

The Evolution of Visual Effects on 007

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Mara Bryan started out her career in computer graphics for commercials and TV before moving into the film industry. In 2022, Mara was nominated for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature at the VES Awards for her work on No Time To Die. 

Here, Mara talks about the evolution of visual effects used across four 007 movies, from pioneering CGI in GoldenEye, sleepless nights on Die Another Day, CG tunnels in The World Is Not Enough, and creating Bond’s final moments on No Time To Die

Your first James Bond credit was Visual Effects Coordinator on GoldenEye. You worked with Pierce Brosnan on all four of his 007 adventures. What are your memories of him?

I did get to know Pierce quite well, because when the actors are hanging on a cable from a helicopter in front of a green screen, you do tend to get chatting. I remember on GoldenEye, Pierce was quite nervous. There were a lot of us that were newbies on GoldenEye. It was Pierce’s first one.  

GoldenEye was the first 007 film to feature CGI. How was that?

I was visual effects. There was nobody else. Previously, visual effects on the Bond films had all been the model unit. Derek Meddings was the Visual Effects Supervisor but he was far removed from the digital world. Everything was done practically. So, I started with a budget of something like £40,000 for a few optical effects and I had to fight incrementally for the budget to do around 150-160 shots digitally.

 What were the biggest challenges?

Shooting Bond going off the edge of the cliff in the Pilatus PC-6. We could do it a lot better now nearly 30 years later. Also, the sequence where Bond’s hanging from the satellite dish at Arecibo. That was difficult because there was so much of it.

 On Tomorrow Never Dies, you were the Visual Effects Supervisor. What did that entail?

By this time, the industry was growing up and I actually had a team. There were lots of big visual effects sequences, three times as many as there had been on GoldenEye. We made the decision quite early on to play all the screen graphics out live, not to add them in later. I had a graphic designer create a logo for the Carver Media Group Network and we built this whole title sequence that we could use in the background. We played them live in case there were script changes, or we needed to roll back to a certain place. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

What were the set pieces you were involved with?

The interior of the stealth ship, which was all green screen. We worked on Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) abseiling down the front of the building and ripping the banner. Also, the helicopter going through the street in Vietnam was a special effects helicopter on a track but it had no rotors. So, we removed all the rig and put the rotors on afterwards. There was the whole underwater sequence with the submarine, a lot of which was real. I also remember we did CG [computer generated] MiG fighter jets. 

On The World Is Not Enough, you were working with Michael Apted, a director who didn’t have any visual effects experience. How was that?

I remember Michael sitting us all down in a Heads of Department meeting. There was Vic Armstrong, who was second unit director, and Peter Lamont, the production designer. Everybody was there. Michael said, “Well, you all know what you’re doing. You’ve all done this before so I’m just going to let you get on with it and I’ll direct the drama.” That’s pretty much what he did. He was very trusting. There was the whole tunnel sequence with Bond trying to disarm the missile in the pipeline. That was a biggie because that was an entirely CG tunnel just shot with moving lights on a rig.

Was The World Is Not Enough the first time holographic images were used in feature films?

Actually, sorry to disillusion anyone, but this was not a true holographic image. We simulated one, based on researched reference and imagery. However, it was one of the first uses of “visual effects volumetric rendering”, which simply means it was a technique for creating 3 dimensional objects with visible volume that was still somewhat in the R & D stage. 

How did you create the parahawks that attack Bond and Christmas Jones in Azerbaijan?

There were CG versions of the parahawks. I remember there’s photos of me up in Chamonix taking lighting reference at certain times of the day with my watch in shot so we knew how to light for CG paragliders. We were way up the top of this mountain. It was dead silent. We had to go up there in these strange army vehicles because it was very rough terrain and very snowy.  It was exquisitely beautiful.

You’ve said that the effects on Die Another Day kept you awake at night?

They did, especially the surfing and Icarus sequences. I’m not sure we ever got them to work and there were lots of reasons for that. I think we were too ambitious. I’m not sure we approached the concept of kite surfing in the right way, especially given the limitations of the technology at the time.

Was this the first time digital water was ever used in a feature film?

For Die Another Day, this was not the first time digital water had been used in a feature film, as I had used it previously, on a much smaller scale, on another film. But digital water simulations were still extremely new, and the software to create them was very approximate, so the creation of water involved writing computer code to create the effects. This involved specialists who had specific and expert knowledge of computer simulations. The success, or lack thereof, of visual effects shots often does not lie in the technical execution of the FX, but in the conceptual design of how they are deployed. And in this regard, I think the FX technology was the more successful.

What are you proud of on Die Another Day?

We set the ice palace into the landscape and I think that worked well. I thought the invisible Aston Martin came off smartly. Whether you like the idea of it or not is another matter but I thought we actually pulled that off pretty well. It really took some thinking about and research into how to make it believable that a car could be invisible. We went into military technology and had LED screens along the side of vehicles that project the image that’s on the opposite side of the vehicle so that you have adaptive camouflage. That was the basic concept behind it. 

 You came back to the Bond family with No Time To Die. How many digital effects shots were there?

No Time To Die had 1486 VFX shots. Obviously, the car sequence in Matera was a big practical effects number but it was big on digital effects as well. There were CG versions of all the cars and those little bombs that came out. We also added tyre tracks everywhere and painted the crew out. There was a pod driver on the top of the Aston Martin, so whenever it was a stunt car, we had to remove the stunt driver. The trawler sequence was a biggie. To sink the trawler, Chris Corbould made a huge rotating special effects rig in a tank but all the underwater stuff was digital.

 How did you approach the destruction of Safin’s Island?

Most of Poison Island was digital. The visual effects team had been out and shot reference photography in the Faro Islands. The background was largely matte painting, because we wanted the island on which Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) was on to be a certain distance away. We wanted the skies to look a certain way. So just getting it to look 100% convincing was tough.

 It’s also the locale where Bond dies. Was that an emotional thing to do?

Yes, it was. Charlie Noble (VFX supervisor) dines out on the fact that his mother still hasn’t forgiven him for killing Bond. Of course, it was top secret and we managed to keep it that way for — crikey! — two and a half years.

 How would you sum up the VFX philosophy on Bond?

Don’t do anything with visual effects unless you absolutely have to. They do all those fabulous enormous stunts, special effects and explosions for real, and they will only come to visual effects when they absolutely cannot sink a trawler with Bond swimming up the side of it. So, they’re very ambitious with what they attempt practically and long may it continue. It’s a matter of pride for the special effects team.

James Bond’s Italy

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Since his first voyage to Italy in 1963’s From Russia With Love, James Bond has travelled the length and breadth of Italy, from the ancient city of Rome to the wintry chills of Cortina d’Ampezzo and the sunnier climes of Sardinia and Matera. As well as providing scenic beauty and glamour, the Italian backdrops have amped 007’s drama from pursuits through the narrow canals of Venice and foot chases over the perilous roofs of Siena. 

Venice

As seen in: From Russia with Love (1963), Moonraker (1979), Casino Royale (2006)

James Bond’s first of three forays to Venice appears at the end of From Russia With Love. 007 (Sean Connery) fights and kills SPECTRE agent Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in a hotel room with a view over San Giorgio Maggiore, Bond and Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) later share a kiss in a water taxi under the iconic Bridge of Sighs. Director Terence Young and a film crew only spent a day in Venice. Connery and Bianchi performed their scenes against a back screen projection at Pinewood Studios in July 1963 while Piazzetta San Marco leading to Piazza San Marco was used as a backdrop for the film’s end credits.

Venice played a much bigger role in Moonraker. Bond (Roger Moore) is on the hunt for Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) which takes him to the Venini Glass Works located at the Piazzetta dei Leoncini next to Saint Mark’s Basilica. Coming under attack on the canals by Drax’s assassins, Bond turns his gondola (nicknamed the Bondola by the crew) into a hovercraft and travels across St. Mark’s Square.

“I had to drive this 80-foot-long gondola across St. Mark’s Square, where there were thousands of tourists who didn’t know there was a film going on,” recalled Roger Moore. “I was absolutely petrified. I didn’t have that much control over it. They eventually gave me a little klaxon to warn people.”

Bond returned to Venice 27 years later with Casino Royale. Sending M his retirement notice, 007 (Daniel Craig) enters Venice on a luxury yacht with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Vesper double crosses Bond and a chase ensues through Piazza San Marco and various alleyways, leading to a battle inside a collapsing palazzo which was shot mostly at Pinewood. “Though it’s a wonderful city, it’s not the easiest to film in,” recalled director Martin Campbell, who had to shoot around hordes of tourists.

For the sequence of Bond and Vesper sailing up the Grand Canal on a 54ft (16 metre) yacht named Spirit, the vessel was sailed from England to Nassau, The Bahamas to film the scene with Bond and Vesper enjoying time together before setting sail for Venice. An aerial unit captured the yacht entering Venice, the first boat allowed to sail on the Grand Canal since it was prohibited for outside traffic 350 years ago. The mast was taken up and down to move under the bridges. “It’s not a bad way to earn a living, sailing a yacht up the Grand Canal,” said Daniel Craig. “The traffic jam we caused was terrible. I don’t know if they really do have tailbacks in Venice but they had tailbacks that day.” 

Sardinia

As seen in: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Bond (Roger Moore) and Soviet agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) arrive in Costa Smeralda, Sardinia to infiltrate the operation of shipping tycoon Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens). The island in the Mediterranean plays host to a spectacular chase as 007’s Lotus Esprit is pursued by cars, a motorbike and helicopter. The only way for the camera to keep pace with the Lotus Esprit was to mount it in another Lotus Esprit.

Also shot in Sardinia was Bond’s journey to Stromberg’s aquatic base Atlantis on a wet bike. The prototype was built by Nelson Tyler with a 65 horsepower, two cycle engine capable of speeds of 50 miles per hour. “Nobody had ever seen one before,” recalled Roger Moore.

Cortina d’Ampezzo

As seen in: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

From the warmth of Sardinia, Bond’s next Italian sortie saw him enter the winter wonderland of Cortina d’Ampezzo, home of the 1956 Winter Olympics. Willy Bogner shot the ski sequences where Bond (Roger Moore) is chased down a mountain ending up in a pursuit down a bobsled run. 

When the unit arrived in Cortina in January 1981, they were faced with multiple challenges. “Cortina was damn cold,” said Roger Moore. “It was January — but there wasn’t any snow in the village.”

“Overnight, Tom Pevsner and his men got a convoy of trucks that fetched snow in the mountains and dumped it in Cortina,” said Michael G. Wilson, then working as an assistant to his step-father, producer Cubby Broccoli. “When the people got up in the morning, the whole village was covered in snow.”


Lake Como

As seen in: Casino Royale (2006)

Lake Como appears twice in Daniel Craig’s first outing as Bond. The first, shot at the Villa del Balbianello near Lenno, sees 007 recuperating from torture at the hands of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) and forge a deeper connection with Vesper.

“Lake Como is one of the most beautiful spots in the world,” said producer Michael G. Wilson. “This is where the love affair between Bond and Vesper begins.”

The second occurs when Bond tracks down and shoots Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) and Craig utters the line “The name’s Bond. James Bond” for the first time. The moment was filmed at the private residence Villa la Gaeta in Sant’Abbondio located near the resorts of San Siro and Menaggio.

Lake Garda & Carrara

As seen in: Quantum of Solace (2008)

The pre-credit car chase sequence between Bond’s Aston Martin DBS and Alfa Romeo 159s was captured in two distinct Italian locations: on the roads and tunnels around Lake Garda, then in Carrara for a pursuit through a quarry.

The sequence employed seven Aston Martins and eight Alfa Romeos. The tunnel chase was complicated by the tunnel only being 28 ft wide in parts. As stunt coordinator Gary Powell noted, “When there are over 40 cars going through it at the speeds we were doing, it becomes a technical challenge.” After ten days shooting at Lake Garda, the unit moved to Massa to take advantage of the Carrara marble quarry.

“Some of the mountain roads we were on were quite high up and very narrow,” remembered Powell. The quarry was 3,500ft above sea level and we had cars coming down, doing handbrake turns, going round corners at speed with a 750 ft drop next to them.”

Siena

As seen in: Quantum of Solace (2008)

Following the car chase, Bond goes in pursuit of M’s double crossing bodyguard Mitchell (Glenn Forster) and gets caught up in the crowds watching the world famous Palio horse race at Piazza del Campo in the Tuscan city of Siena. As the race happens only once a year, the horse race had been captured months before principal photography began by a second unit crew.

“The Palio horse race is only about 90 seconds,” recalled First Assistant Director Michael Lerman. “We had ten camera crews shooting from rooftops, out of windows and on the track itself.” The chase continues over the picture-postcard Sienese rooftops.

While the initial idea had been to build the rooftops on the backlot at Pinewood, scheduling meant the team had to approach the Sienese City officials to take over the rooftops for a couple of months for filming. “I did a 25-foot jump,” Daniel Craig remembered. “It’s not that scary jumping off the side of a building with a wire on. I’d rehearsed the jump, so was mentally prepared, then they put a moving bus underneath and it suddenly becomes something else.”

Vatican City, Rome

As seen in: Spectre (2015)

Bond (Daniel Craig)’s sojourn to Rome is the series’ first visit to the Eternal City. The funeral of Marco Sciarra was staged at the Museum of Roman Civilisation. Also shot there were night exteriors for Lucia’s villa at Villa Di Fiorano and the Aston Martin DB10 speeding past the Coliseum.

The centre-piece is a duel between Bond’s Aston Martin DB10 and SPECTRE operative Hinx’s (Dave Bautista) Jaguar C-X75 through the cobbled streets and towpaths.

“We had two of the fastest cars in the world travelling at night at speed, through what is near enough a world heritage site,” said Executive Producer, Callum McDougal.

“Via Nomentana was one of the longest city lock-downs our location department had ever done. It was about 3 kilometres of main roads entering Rome,” recalled Associate Producer, Gregg Wilson. “This means that you are employing hundreds of blockers to make sure no people or vehicles wander into shot.”

A highlight of the chase sees the cars go down the Scala de Pinedo steps – which were reinforced for their own protection – and onto the towpath by the river Tiber, which just prior to filming had been prone to flooding. Shooting around such beautiful antiquity meant the filmmakers had to take precautions during production and adapt as necessary. The sequence ends with the Aston Martin flying into the water and Bond parachuting to safety at Ponte Sisto.

“We always try to do things on-screen that have never been done before, and the result in Rome was spectacular. It is something we feel very proud of, and I think the Romans will feel very proud as well,” said Barbara Broccoli during production.

Matera

As seen in: No Time to Die (2021)

Bond 25’s pre-credit sequence sees 007 (Daniel Craig) and Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) travel to the city of Matera in Southern Italy. The crew shipped ten DB5s, eight of which were built by Aston Martin and the special effects team. The other two were original 1964 DB5’s used in previous Bond films.

When SPECTRE agents surround 007 and Madeleine in the Piazza San Giovanna Batista, the DB5 has some tricks in its locker, firing bullets from its front lights and a smoke screen from the back as it spins round before peeling off. “Matera is tiered like an amphitheatre so whenever the DB5 did a stunt at the end we heard the locals hollering and giving us a round of applause,” recalled Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould.

007 x Fabergé Octopussy Collection

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The debut collection is inspired by Octopussy (1983) and features a hand-crafted limited edition Egg Objet and special edition egg surprise locket.  

The Egg Objet is limited to 50 numbered pieces and stands at 8.4cm tall, crafted from 18k yellow gold and hand-painted with a rich green enamel. The pattern underneath is a combination of Fabergé’s signature guilloché accompanied by engraved octopus tentacles. The egg is mounted on a stand set with white diamonds and blue sapphires. When the egg opens, it reveals an 18k yellow gold octopus adorned with white diamond suckers and black diamond eyes. The Egg Objet has taken six months to be created in the hands of twelve specialists, working across nine individual crafts including spinning, dye stamping, casting, goldsmithing, guilloché engraving, hand-engraving, enamelling, setting and polishing.

The exterior of the Egg Surprise Locket closely follows the design of the Fabergé egg featured in the film with 18k gold lattice framework delicately set with blue sapphires and white diamonds in a floral-like design. The egg’s surface features a geometric guilloché engraved pattern and each piece has been decorated with green enamel to pair with the egg objet. Subtle nods are woven into the design, including the bail of the locket which takes its inspiration from the letter ‘O’ in the film’s title treatment. The egg locket also offers a surprise – a miniature 18k gold octopus set with two black diamond eyes set inside.

The 007 x Fabergé Octopussy capsule collection – comprising the Octopussy Egg Objet and the Octopussy Egg Surprise Locket – is available to purchase and pre-order at 007Store.com.

Dr. No Companion Book Announced

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Taschen have announced the release of a new 492 page book, James Bond. Dr. No, a complete account of the making of the first 007 film.

An ultimate companion-piece to the 1962 film, the book features insight from producers Cubby Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, director Terence Young and art director Ken Adam. 

Readers can follow the production of the film through a day-by-day account of what took place, which scenes were shot and who made the decisions that shaped the story and characters as it was filmed. 

Among the 1,007 images included, are rare and unseen shots from photographers Bert Cann, Bunny Yaeger and Bradley Smith, as well as memos, documents, posters, and production designs.

James Bond. Dr. No is written by film historian and author of the James Bond Archives, Paul Duncan and edited by EON Productions. Available in a Collector’s Edition, limited to 1,462 copies, and two numbered Art Editions of 1-500, each accompanied by a framed ChromaLuxe print by Bert Cann.

Pre-order now at 007Store.com.

007 Science Exhibition In Chicago

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The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is hosting a world first exhibition, 007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond. The exhibition features the science and technology from 007’s 25 adventures, and opened on March 7th, running until October 27th 2024. 

007 Science explores the way in which physics, chemistry, engineering and mathematics have shaped James Bond’s on-screen adventures. Delving behind the scenes, the exhibition reveals how the Bond production team harnesses real-world science to craft 007’s gadgets and vehicles to create the movies’ thrilling stunts and action sequences.

13 vehicles and 90 artefacts will be on display, including Bond’s prototype jet pack from Thunderball, Paloma’s lipstick and earpieces that allowed for secret communication in No Time To Die and the Parahawk snowmobiles of The World Is Not Enough. 

“EON Productions is proud to partner with the Museum of Science and Industry for our first ever science themed exhibition,” said Gregg Wilson, Associate Producer of the James Bond film series. “007 Science invites the public to discover the real world science in front of and behind the camera.”

HiddenCity Launches 007: Shadow Of Spectre

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EON has partnered with real-world adventure game company HiddenCity to bring Bond fans an interactive, treasure hunt-style game in central London, 007: Shadow Of Spectre. 

Players are being recruited as MI6 field agents and will use their phones to guide them through the adventure, stepping into Bond’s world on the streets of the capital and interacting with key characters to outsmart Spectre. The plot finds James Bond unresponsive and Moneypenny needing players’ help to follow the instructions he’s left behind. Starting at a central London location, teams of two to six people will follow a trail of clues and gather intelligence to outsmart Spectre.

The decision-making element of the adventure ensures each team shapes the game’s outcome and players will engage in real-world interactions and conversations along the way to ultimately solve the mystery. Players will need to follow coded instructions from 007 and Q Branch, navigate to secret locations, go undercover, and collect intelligence from handlers to work out where to go next.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with EON Productions on 007: Shadow Of Spectre, bringing our unique style of adventure to the Bond universe,” says HiddenCity founder Rob Reason. “We pride ourselves on creating gaming experiences that challenge and excite our audience and we look forward to launching 007: Shadow Of Spectre in 2024.” HiddenCity are the winners of the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award four years running.

Tickets for 007: Shadow Of Spectre are available at £30 per person with the game recommended for players 10 years old and over (under-10s playing for free). Under 18s must be supervised by adults due to licensing restrictions. The walking experience lasts 2-3 hours with optional breaks. All you need is a smart phone capable of receiving messages, calls and data. You can play via SMS or WhatsApp.

Experience 007: Shadow Of Spectre: Tickets on sale now. Play every day between 12:30pm and 6:30pm Mon – Sat, and 12:30pm – 4:30pm on Sundays. Book tickets at 007.inthehiddencity.com or 007Store.com.

Bond’s Ice Missions

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Ever since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969, some of the most thrilling James Bond action sequences have taken place in the coldest climates. The 007 action unit have found myriad ways to create unique snowbound set-pieces on skis, to aircraft and even a cello case. Here are the behind-the scenes stories from some of Bond’s most iconic ice capades….

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Locations: Mürren, Switzerland.

The Action: Bond (George Lazenby) travels to the Swiss Alps to infiltrate Piz Gloria, the HQ of Spectre head Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas). The snowbound scenes include a stock car race on ice, a night-time ski pursuit and a daring helicopter raid on the mountain-top fortress.

Behind the scenes: Production manager Hubert Frölich found an under-construction restaurant only reachable by cable car built on the Schilthorn mountain near Mürren, Switzerland. EON paid to complete the restaurant so they could use it to double as Piz Gloria. Blofeld’s helipad was left behind to serve mountain rescue teams.

Richard Graydon, stunt double for George Lazenby: “I doubled for Bond when he had to go hand-over-hand along a cable. The drop was about 80 feet. The only safety devices I had were two hooks in the palms of my hand attached to my safety belt. The difficulty was ice had formed on the cable. So instead of the hooks locking onto the cable, I found myself sliding down towards Mürren, which was two or three miles below. Fortunately, there were some stuntmen on the first pylon who caught hold of me as I approached it, otherwise I think I might still be going.” 

 

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Locations: St. Moritz, Switzerland and Mount Asgard in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Canada.

Behind the scenes: On assignment in Austria, 007 (Roger Moore) is pursued down a mountain by KGB assassins when he is confronted by a cliff face. All looks lost when Bond skis off the edge to certain death – until, after a few heart-stopping moments, a parachute opens emblazoned with a Union Jack.

Trivia: Director John Glen and crew waited ten days for the harsh conditions to subside to shoot the spectacular jump of Mount Asgard. When the clouds finally parted, the team only had a 15-minute window to capture the stunt performed by climber and stuntman Rick Sylvester.

John Glen, second-unit director: “We were in this very desolate part of the world, inside the Arctic circle with an Inuit village about 30 miles away. Each day we had to travel out by helicopter to set up the climbing pylons so the crew could get up there with the cameras. The weather was atrocious.”

 

 For Your Eyes Only (1982)

Location: Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The Action: Hot on the trail of Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard), an enforcer in the Brussels underworld, Bond (Roger Moore) heads to Cortina, Italy. 007 is hunted down by motorbike assassins, ending up on a thrilling pursuit around a bobsleigh run.

Behind the scenes: Shooting the bob run chase, the motorbike’s wheels were fitted with spike-laden treads to increase the grip while moving at speeds of up to 50mph.

Willy Bognor, ski photographer: “In order to get a very close look at the action and really capture the feel of the chase, I decided to do some tracking shots on skis on the bob run. I could handhold it (the camera) during the chase and because of the shock-absorbing effect of my knees and arms, it was possible to hold the camera really steady and get a perfectly clear picture even at high speeds.”

 

A View To A Kill (1985)

Location: Vedretta di Scerscen Inferiore glacier, the Alps in Switzerland

The Action: In the pre-titles sequence, Bond (Roger Moore) is being chased by henchmen on skis, a snowmobile and in a helicopter. 007 improvises his escape with a snowmobile blade acting as snowboard and glides his way out of danger.

Behind the scenes: The first feature film to showcase snowboarding, the sequence took six weeks to film with  pioneer, World Snowboard Champion (1982) Tom Sims and Steve Link doubling for Roger Moore for the snowboarding scenes.  

John Glen: “Willy [Bogner, champion skier] came up with this new idea: snowboarding. He said, ‘If we could get Bond on a monoski, then we could have some real fun.’ I thought that was a great idea and I came up with the idea that Bond was on a motorised toboggan that gets shot up and all that’s left is the front ski. So Bond goes on it as a snowboard. Willy came up with this idea of the lake, of using the snowboard as a seaboard as well, to go through the lake. It worked ever so well.” 

 

The Living Daylights (1987)

Location: Weissensee, Austria

The Action: Chased by the KGB and the Czechoslovakian Police, Bond (Timothy Dalton) and cellist Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) flee from Bratislava to Vienna. 007’s Aston Martin V8 is forced onto a frozen lake, evading his pursuers with the help of a jet engine booster. After crash landing the V8 in a forest, the pair cross the Austrian border using Kara’s cello case as a sled.

Behind the scenes: For the moment 007 throws the cello over the barrier and catches it, Timothy Dalton nailed the tricky manoeuvre on the first take.

Paul Weston, stunt supervisor: “It was a dangerous chase because when we first arrived the lake was just freezing over. When we walked out on it, you could see the fish beneath you, as it hadn’t gone white yet, it was like standing on a sheet of glass.” 

 

 The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Location: Chamonix, France.

The Action: At the behest of M (Judi Dench), Bond (Pierce Brosnan) travels to Azerbaijan to protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau). During a tour of the Caucasus Mountains to check the construction of an oil pipeline, Bond and Elektra come under attack from a quartet of parahawks, Skidoos suspended from parachutes.

Behind the scenes: The crew were often hampered by heavy snow, overcast skies, delays stopping for avalanche warnings and diesel freezing in the trucks. The spectacular set-piece ended up going five days over schedule.

Jonathan Taylor, second unit-cameraman: “We tested the cameras in the British Airways refrigerator at Heathrow and left them there overnight to make sure they ran and the batteries were up to speed.”

 

Die Another Day (2002)

Location: Iceland.

The Action: Slipping the clutches of millionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) from his ice palace in Iceland. 007 (Pierce Brosnan) speeds off in his Aston Martin V12 Vanquish and embarks on a high-speed duel with Zao (Rick Yune)’s Jaguar XKR across a frozen landscape.

Behind the scenes: The cars were converted to four-wheel drive for the chase. To shoot the auto-ballet, the camera unit vehicle was fitted out with floatation devices in case the ice broke.

Michael G. Wilson, producer: ‘It was a miracle. That lagoon only freezes a few weeks a year to that depth that’s sufficient for cars to run on it. It just so happened that this was the coldest February in 60 years and therefore we only had a few weeks to film everything.”

 

Spectre (2015)

Location: Altaussee, Austria.

Action: In the snowy drifts of Altaussee, Bond (Daniel Craig) mounts a rescue of Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), kidnapped by SPECTRE henchman Hinx (Dave Bautista). Bond gives chase in a plane, using it to ram into Hinx’s convoy and free Madeleine.

Behind the scenes: Crew members caught walking on pristine snow were fined 10 euros with the proceeds going to charity.

Dave Bautista, actor: “My character, Hinx, kidnaps Madeleine. The altitude was so high and the oxygen levels were so low that the scene was a lot trickier than it looks on film.”

 

No Time To Die (2021)

Location: Langvann Lake, Norway.

The Action: The film opens on a flashback depicting young Madeleine Swann (Mathilde Bourbin), under siege in a Norwegian lake house from Safin (Rami Malek) who is intent on murdering her father. Fleeing across a frozen Norwegian lake, Madeleine falls through the ice but she is rescued and spared by Safin.

Behind the scenes: The lake house was assembled at the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios and then “flat-packed” in a container and shipped out to Norway.

Linus Sandgren, cinematographer: “We couldn’t put too much weight in the ice or be too close to certain areas, because the temperature was too warm and they were afraid the ice would crack. We were also limited to how large the cranes we could use.”

Head off on your next adventure in style with the 007 collection of travel accessories at 007Storecom.

Bond In Motion at Spy Museum

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Vehicle exhibition Bond in Motion has travelled to The International Spy Museum in Washington.

Opened on March 1, 2024 at L’Enfant Plaza, Bond in Motion features 17 vehicles from the 007 film series, ranging from the Aston Martin DBS from Quantum of Solace (2008) to the Jaguar XKR from Die Another Day (2002).

Other highlights include the submarine from For Your Eyes Only (1981) and the MR Glastron Boat from Moonraker (1979), offering a journey chronicling James Bond’s 60+ years of adventures.

Tickets are available for purchase priced at $12.00. For more information, visit spymuseum.org.

Bond in Motion was previously hosted in the US at the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York. The European edition is currently located in Prague, Czechia.

DHL is the official logistics partner of this exhibition.

The Style Of No Time To Die

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Emmy award-winning costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb has a career which spans London and Broadway theatre, opera, blockbuster movies and the 2012 summer Olympics. In 2021, Suttirat was responsible for No Time To Die and Daniel Craig’s look in his last outing as James Bond as well as creating the wardrobes for villain Safin (Rami Malek) and the film’s three female protagonists: Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux); Paloma (Ana de Armas); and Nomi (Lashana Lynch). 

In our exclusive interview, Suttirat reveals why No Time To Die demanded a different look for 007…

The Preparation

“I had already watched all the James Bond films before I was approached about being the costume designer just because I was a fan. I was introduced to them by my mom who loved them. Skip forward to when I became the designer, I rewatched them again. I wanted to create a mental database of what the big themes were in terms of design for certain kinds of characters: the villain, the love interest, the worker bees in the lair of the villain. I also wanted to break things down in terms of environments. Over the years James Bond has been in the desert, mountains, underwater, jungle, every continent. If you’re watching it intently, a little bit gets imprinted in your design DNA.”

The Approach

“Director Cary (Joji Fukunaga) came up with the phrase ‘grounded cool’. I think there’s cool that’s cool for cool sake. I think there’s grounded, which can be very documentarian, no pizazz. And then ‘grounded cool’ is somewhere between them. It’s about being driven by character behaviour. You have this responsibility on a Bond film to answer the challenge of the previous movie visually and lay down the gauntlet for the next one. It has to be cool. But, because of the conversations I had been having with both our director and Daniel Craig himself about where our James Bond was in his career and his life, we knew that No Time To Die was going to be a different kind of look for Bond.”

Bond in Italy

“He starts at a point in which we’ve never seen him before. It’s very clear at the beginning of our film that he’s made a choice to reject his old life. So, in order to do that, there were some rules that I felt were really necessary to have that relaxation visually. He’s in this soft jacket that’s very fluid and bears no resemblance to a suit jacket. It’s the most relaxed version of a romantic getaway travel look without being like a structured Safari suit or something that might be more expected of Bond. It just needed to telegraph romance, travel and luxury all in one outfit.”

Bond in Jamaica

“We were really stripping away everything everybody knows about Bond. He’s renounced his position at the secret service to fall in love and now he’s renounced love itself. He had to start from a shirt full of holes and swimming shorts. So the journey can be about building him back to the point where he walks back through the famous doors in London in his Tom Ford suit to go head-to-head with M.”

Bond in Cuba

“James has to put that armour back on. From the outset I was so privileged to work with Tom Ford and his team on this tuxedo. I knew what the scenes and sets were, and I also knew all the tuxedos that Daniel had worn in previous films. With the Tom Ford team, I was able to work out the silhouette, the details of the lapel and the materials. I made a binder just for the tuxedo communications that was as thick as a phonebook.”

Madeleine Swann – Léa Seydoux

“When we meet her, Madeleine has let her guard down with this man. She is travelling in Italy, wearing a beautiful red floral dress, exactly what you would imagine a fiery, passionate trip to Italy would need. We started out on fire, and then drained that life out of her a bit. When Bond and Madeleine finally see each other again, she’s partially built that shell back up, but she’s not as inaccessible as she was in her Spectre introduction because she’s been worn down. We later learn the secret. She’s now a mother and there’s a domestic aspect. So, it’s not the same uniform you put on when you’re the only person in your life.”

Safin – Rami Malek

“Doing my research, one of the pictures that popped out was this image of the genius Japanese designer Issey Miyake at his work table. He just looked like the architect of the world, and so at ease in that role. It has the appearance of a uniform, but it’s his own thing. I mentioned these things to Rami when we first met and he grabbed on to that as well. Collaborating with Rami was just wonderful for me. We had great conversations about character, probably to an annoying point for him, but it all helps me.”

Safin’s Mask

“We knew Safin needed a mask for when he goes to see the young Madeleine and wants to remain anonymous. I pulled up a lot of reference, from something as pedestrian as a ski mask to functional balaclavas and hoods because we knew the environment was cold. But I remembered having seen this image of a Japanese Noh theatrical mask. When I showed this picture to Cary, what he liked about it was at first it seemed expressionless, but it actually has quite a lot of expression depending on how you look at it. This seemed like a good metaphor for how Rami was approaching Safin.”

Paloma – Ana de Armas

“Paloma is basically earning her stripes. We had discussions about women in these positions, who have to embed themselves in the situation when they’re being called to serve. In the case of Paloma, our introduction to her is at the extravagant Spectre party that’s happening in Cuba, which is a black-tie event. So, not to be singled out, she’s basically in this spectacular dress, and does incredible feats in this wisp of a thing. Especially on a franchise like this, it’s important when you turn up the volume, you turn it up really high.”

Nomi – Lashana Lynch

“Nomi is seen wearing a tactical all-in-one, which is from a sketch of mine. We talked about her needing to blend in and not be seen, she doesn’t want to be mistaken as a guest. I’m thinking about the stunts she’s going to be engaged in, the equipment she needs, all the ways the clothes need to serve the action. So it made perfect sense for Nomi to be in something allowing her to be fast, agile and move around like a cat.”

Final Thoughts

“I never in a million years would have thought I’d get to do a Bond film. I felt so grateful and honoured. When I was doing it, I felt this huge sense of responsibility and really feared the consequences if I didn’t keep my eyes on the prize. Now that I’ve done it and it exists, and people talk about the canon of Bond films, that’s pretty exciting.”

The Style Of Skyfall And Spectre

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Jany, you’re a James Bond fan first and foremost…

I love it, love it, love it! 

When were you first introduced to 007?

The film I fell in love with was Octopussy. It was the first one I saw in a cinema in Paris, on a big screen on the Champs-Élysées. I was full of aspiration afterwards, it was so glamorous. 

How did you become involved with the James Bond films?

Through Sam Mendes. He was looking for someone to work on the costumes for Skyfall. My agent told me that he was interested in seeing me, we had a meeting to discuss the work and that was it. I think Sam looked at my work on Harry Potter and liked it. 

What were your first steps when starting on a Bond film?

You have to respect what has been done before and at the same time innovate. It’s very hard to take on a legacy and do something more modern. This was the challenge, the balance between innovation and being respectful of the tradition of 007.

How do you find that balance of adding your own style and respecting the tradition?

There were 50 years of history when I started. I had to look at what sort of man Bond could be now, how he could hold the values of a modern English gentleman and spy, and show this in how he looks. I was very much helped by Daniel Craig who had a very good idea of what he wanted to look like. I went to see him in New York with a bunch of clothes. We created the shape of his suit together before seeing Tom Ford.  I was really happy to be with Barbara Broccoli because it’s quite intimidating, arriving in that temple of style. We told them Tom Ford is what we all wanted Daniel to wear as James Bond. They sent me their best tailor and some samples from Italy. The collaboration was brilliant. Tom Ford was also very happy that I wanted to have the tuxedo in dark blue instead of black.

The midnight blue dinner jacket – was that inspired by Sean Connery’s era in the 60s? 

No, I didn’t ever know that, I just thought blue was an interesting idea. I had a gentleman to create. I thought that there is a sense of tradition in Bond and I can bring what I think is new. But I discover with 60 years of history nothing is new. I chose midnight blue dinner jackets because it has an elegance and way of showing sophistication. 

Was getting the look of James Bond’s suits your main challenge as Costume Designer?

We wanted to have an athletic, strong, sporty man. The fact that the suits are tight is not just an aesthetic reason, it is because I wanted to see the body to show what he is physically capable of. You can see that 007 has legs to run. It was good to show fans that yes, you can wear a suit that looks cool and feels young. He is somebody dressed to have a martini in a bar and to fight. He is ready for action and the suit shows that. 

How much collaboration do you do with actors and the director? 

Everything we did was to fit the script and was looked at by Sam Mendes. We talked in the beginning and I mentioned ideas such as the style of (legendary French actor and filmmaker) Alain Delon, my inspiration through various designers and what characters could wear. Daniel had ideas for certain looks and things he was comfortable in but the physical suit, that was agreed between everyone but especially with Sam and Daniel.

In Skyfall, Q and Moneypenny are re-introduced. How important was it to modernise them?

Q’s quirky look was very much from Sam Mendes. He wanted Q to be someone who is incredibly intelligent.  So we thought of all those kids working in tech and social media. They were spending a hell of a lot of money on clothes and were fashionable in a very nerdy way. That’s what we wanted to show for Q. I sent an image pitching the idea to Sam and he said, “You’ve nailed it, you’ve got it, exactly how I wanted”.

Q had a statement mustard cardigan. How did that come about?

It’s from the menswear designer, Dries van Noten. Everything Q wears on screen is extremely expensive on purpose. It is sort of how a tech or computer millionaire will dress. I imagined Q going to a very expensive shop but to buy a cardigan because that’s what he likes to wear and at school he had one. 

Who’s costume did you spend the most time on?

After 007, the one character who was very difficult was Javier Bardem’s Silva. Javier came with one goal in mind and said, “I want to be as beautiful as Daniel”. Some might think that is vanity but Javier assured me that in the scene where they are both together, he wanted to be attractive even though underneath, his looks have been completely destroyed. Javier said to me, “I want to be a man with a certain level of attraction because if not, the scene where Bond is attracted to me will make no sense”. That was a very strong point. So we had to find a style but it took us a long time. For example, the policeman’s suit, people may think that was easy but it was a tailored suit just for Silva. We were shooting on the underground and we had real policemen who were looking at Javier in his uniform saying, “Oh my god, check it out. That jacket is so well cut. Is that the new uniform?” and I would say, “No, no no. The jacket was made by hand to look like a policeman’s uniform”.

Are there any other costumes that you enjoyed on Skyfall?

The black dress with the nude back worn by Bérénice Lim Marlohe as Sévérine. That was an idea from Sam who said, “I am going to start this shot with the back of the dress”. So I started looking into transparent material for the back of the dress. We had 10 of those dresses. It was so tight and difficult to wear and was in two pieces, so we had to sew Bérénice into it. You don’t see any of this on screen of course but the practicalities of the dress meant not going to the loo for many hours. So you put on the dress in the morning, get out of it at lunchtime and back into it for the afternoon.  I think Bérénice was quite happy to get rid of it at the end of the day.

The glamorous dresses are obviously also a big part of Bond history…

It is not just beautiful clothing, it’s a femme fatale dress. When I told Sam that Miss Moneypenny would be wearing gold in that scene he was worried the character would look like an Oscar statue. I said, “No, it won’t be that kind of gold, it will be more like anise”. We worked on it to find the final colour to make the dress stand out in the scene. It was wonderful working with Sam and I don’t think that I would have done such a good job without his guidance.

How important is it to work with other teams such as hair and make-up teams to keep the cast looking perfect?

Very important. You only get extremely beautiful results with tight collaboration between departments.  Nothing happens ‘par hasard’. Make-up designer Naomi Donne is great at sharing ideas and Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are excellent for encouraging this. They  really put people together and connect with the heads of department so people exchange ideas. This is reflected in the final film on screen.

In Spectre, the Day of the Dead opening sequence is such a big statement. How did you put together a vibrant sequence with all of the costumes?

It looks so good because we had plenty of time. When I started on Spectre, the script was not ready and that opening was the only part  that I could start on besides Daniel’s costume which was going to be with Tom Ford. For The Day of the Dead, we spent so many months on it and I had a workshop in Mexico with incredible people. It was just designing, designing, designing. We started working out shapes, patterns and arranging things so they could be mixed around to give us a range of outfits. Then the 10 shapes could be multiplicated by changing the colour, shape and patterns on the outfit. Quite cleverly, it gives you lots of designs and looks. That is why the opening scene looks so good, because we had time to prepare.

What a huge project to design an entire parade on this scale…
So many people but also key characters are involved. I had two choices for Daniel to wear based on the fact Bond enters the room, removes clothes, goes out of the window and straight on the roof in one camera movement. I had to get something that he could take off quickly. So I thought, “Give him a mask, poncho or coat and then a suit underneath”. Daniel chose the coat which looked perfect and the top hat was a nice addition. 

How did you get through so many people so quickly for that opening sequence?

A great team effort. My costume supervisor thought it was really a kick to have 4,000 people dressed up in the morning and he studied how they could be dressed, ready and available in four hours. It was fantastic but it was only because the system was very good.

I saw dresses made of paper, with paper napkins and paper plates in the Mexican Day of the Dead festival. Nothing is impossible in Mexico because they have this fantastic attitude of, “Oh you want it, that’s no problem. We can make an event with all those people”. They helped me tremendously to make dresses out of those paper flowers.  And we had whirling dancers in the street scenes and I thought it would be cool to make them look different again so we put them on wheels. The choreographer was up for the challenge and had seen a ballet in New York where they appeared on wheels. So we asked for those mechanisms to be made and it was met with a simple “No problem” by the crews in Mexico. 

In Spectre you filmed in the heat and the snow. How difficult is it to blend what the script requires with the character costumes?

When we got to Austria I was thinking it would be terrible because I cannot keep the actors warm and make them look stylish. I can dress Daniel Craig in ski clothes but I cannot dress Léa Seydoux in ski clothes because she is meant to be at work and then kidnapped. You cannot wait for her to get a coat on! I asked a colleague of mine, costume designer Jacqueline West, how she had kept Leonardo DiCaprio warm on the set of The Revenant. They were filming outdoors in the snow around the same time we were. She said all of the garments were kept warm on battery powered heaters on wire through the garments. So we immediately bought ourselves some and built them into the undergarments. They keep the actors warm for three hours and then you change the batteries. So Léa was warm because she had those clothes with heating devices. I was so grateful to Jacqueline West as she gave me that tip. 

What inspired Daniel’s look in those snow scenes?

I found that style by looking at the 1950s and 1960s. In France we have a special army called the Chasseurs Alpins, they are expert mountain skiers. I found a trouser in their uniform from the ‘60s and showed it to Daniel. He liked the idea so I went to Tom Ford and then they remade it for me in their unique style. We added the sweater with a sleeve, the sunglasses and the gilet to round out the look but it had to be practical for the actors as well as very stylish.

Do you have ideas ready if you were to work on another Bond film?

Yes, it would be brilliantly challenging. I would love to create a new Bond and find out what’s true for a new actor.  Seeing how you mix a gentleman who is also a spy but is also different from the Bond we know and love. 

What advice do you have for men to dress more like James Bond? 

Start to get fit. Even if you don’t look like Bond, people will notice the improvements. Train the body to look good and a great suit will sit better on you. Then get a tailored suit made for you. If you can afford it, get a great, expensive suit made for you. Great tailoring can make a difference and can correct a lot of things.

How important is it to get the right shoes and watch to match a tailored suit?
This is taken care of for Bond by OMEGA and people like Crockett and Jones. Their work brought the look of 007 together for Daniel Craig. I believe in men’s tailoring. I find the most beautiful bespoke suit is elegant, sophisticated and you keep it for years. You don’t need to have a lot. Three suits and a shirt made for you. Then you add the handmade shoes. It is better to start little and build your wardrobe with a few items that are of excellent quality.

Discover the New 007 Special Issue Pens

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Following the release of the limited-edition 007 Spymaster Duo, Montegrappa introduces the 007 Special Issue, a sleek, all-metal design focused on portability and stealth. Precision-machined from black aluminium and brass, the open edition has industrial lines and sandblasted surfaces.

Engineered by Montegrappa in Italy, the 007 Special Issue is released in a high performance 14K gold nib fountain pen and rollerball. Design elements include a brass blind cap, aluminium grip section, 007 shadow logo and unique hollow-point cap top with a rifled alloy insert, paying homage to the iconic gun barrel opening sequence. Covert details include minimalist trims, a discreet, low-profile clip, and an all-black aesthetic with precision machining at key grip points.

Mission-ready, the 007 Special Issue is practical for all writing assignments and comes with a companion 007 notebook and zip case, with spare cartridges and refills.

The rollerball is £675 and in stock now at 007Store.com, the fountain pen is £1,165 and available to order with a two week delivery time.

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