Comment from Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli: “We are so sad to learn that Eunice Gayson, our very first ‘Bond girl’ who played Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia With Love has passed away. Our sincere thoughts are with her family.”
Inside 007 Elements in Austria
New images have been released of the interior of 007 ELEMENTS, the new James Bond cinematic installation built inside the summit of the Gaislachkogl Mountain in Sölden, Austria. Housed in a striking new architectural structure, designed and created by Obermoser Architects, 007 ELEMENTS is an interactive, immersive and educational experience that places visitors inside the world of 007 while revealing how that world is made. It opens to the public on 12 July 2018.
BARREL OF THE GUN
Visitors enter 007 ELEMENTS via the Barrel of the Gun, an atmospheric anteroom. This space focuses on two fundamentals that are synonymous with the James Bond films, innovative title sequences and dramatic, spine-tingling music.
PLAZA
In the open-air Plaza, the imposing angles of the building’s architecture frame the mountain panorama. The sharp angles recall the work of famed Bond Production Designer Sir Ken Adam who was the primary influence on the building’s design.
LOBBY
The Lobby echoes the type of antechamber that Bond often enters upon his arrival at a villain’s lair. It features an exclusive film that is narrated by Skyfall and Spectre Director Sam Mendes, which takes the visitor through the history of the James Bond films, from Dr. No to Spectre. Mendes also describes his own personal connection to the series.
LAIR
This room features an innovative piece of immersive digital theatre designed to showcase the characters and dialogue from the Bond films in a fresh and exciting way.
BRIEFING ROOM
Actress Naomie Harris, who plays Moneypenny, narrates an exclusive film that explains how the series’ scriptwriting has led to location choices, and how these locations have, in turn, inspired some of the series’ most iconic studio sets. Special attention is given to the locations that form the story-scape for Spectre’s Austrian action sequence.
VALLEY PASSAGE
This spectacular glass viewing space looks north over the Gletscherstraße, a filming location that was used in Spectre.
TECH LAB
The Tech Lab explores some of the cutting-edge technology that features in the Bond films. This state-of-the-art space allows visitors to interact with the technology and to explore some of the legacy props and digital creativity used in a James Bond production.
ACTION HALL
This is an installation that centres on the work of the special effects and stunt departments. It features the front portion of the aircraft that Bond pilots in Spectre. Visitors will also get a behind-the-scenes look at the exact make-up of Spectre’s thrilling mountain chase sequence.
SCREENING ROOM
In the Screening Room guests can watch the Austrian action sequence from Spectre with a fresh understanding of how it was created.
LEGACY GALLERY
The Legacy Gallery allows visitors to discover an extensive 007 archive through interactive touch screens that dip into EON Productions’ archive vault. Exclusive 007 merchandise is also available for purchase.
Photographs: Kristopher Grunert
Focus Of The Week: Emilio Largo
Arrogant, amoral, cruel, Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) is SPECTRE operative No.2 in charge of the extortion operation. He loves the finer things in life — his villa in Palmyra including a shark pool, his luxury yacht the Disco Volante — but his exquisite tastes masks a ruthless streak.
In Thunderball (1965), Largo leads a plot to hijack a bomber carrying two hydrogen bombs and extort $280 million from the NATO countries by threatening to blow up the USA and United Kingdom.
Largo’s plot to steal the aircraft begins with altering the appearance of SPECTRE pilot Angelo Palazzi (Paul Stassino) to resemble NATO air man Francois Derval (also Stassino), who is subsequently murdered by Palazzi. After Palazzi intentionally crashes the NATO bomber into the sea, Largo kills him for trying to wrestle more money out of his deal from SPECTRE. Largo’s men camouflage the sunken bomber at the bottom of the sea and ferry the nuclear weapons to a sealed underwater cave.
In Nassau, Largo first encounters James Bond (Sean Connery), who also starts up a flirtatious relationship with Largo’s mistress Domino (Claudine Auger), who is the deceased Francois Derval’s sister. A psychological game of cat and mouse ensues as both men understand they are watching each other while never revealing their true intentions.
As the NATO deadline looms, Largo retrieves the bombs but discovers 007 has infiltrated his team. Largo traps Bond behind the doors of the underwater pen. He then takes the Disco Volante to Biscayne Bay but discovers Domino has betrayed him by alerting the CIA the bombs are on board. Filled with fury, he tortures her.
Largo and his men escape out of the underwater hatch to plant one bomb to be detonated if NATO does not pay the ransom. However, as he guides his men underwater, CIA aquaparas engage them in battle. Bond, having escaped the underwater pen, joins the fray and the CIA retrieve one bomb.
Largo returns to the Disco Volante which he converts into a high speed hydrofoil. Bond manages to clamber aboard the speeding craft and battle Largo. When the speeding vessel clips a coral reef at top speed, Bond falls, giving Largo the upper hand in the fight. He aims his gun at Bond but, before he can pull the trigger, Domino fires a spear gun into Largo’s back in revenge for killing her brother.
A dying Largo falls onto the yacht’s controls, causing the yacht to run aground and explode violently — but not before Bond and Domino leap overboard to safety.
Focus Of The Week: Sheriff J.W. Pepper
Loud, overbearing and colourful, Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) is a lawman in Louisiana who spends his afternoons trying to catch speeding drivers and looking after small town problems such as shooting Mrs Pearson’s rabid dog. His two encounters with Bond turn his small world upside down.
We first meet J.W. during the boat chase sequence in Live And Let Die (1973). Pepper’s attention is caught by Mr. Big’s henchman Adam (Tommy Lane) pursuing Bond at nearly 90mph. The Sheriff arrests Adam and holds him at gun point. Without warning, Bond’s Glastron Speedboat leaps over Pepper’s head while his pursuer crashes into the idling squad car. A third boat sails overhead, allowing Adam to escape.
Pepper commandeers a police vehicle and proceeds to a bridge where an obstruction has been set up to stop Bond and his pursuers. The blockade doesn’t halt the cavalcade of boats and Pepper arrives at the scene to find his lawmen flailing in the water.
Realising he needs to raise his efforts, Pepper enlists his brother-in-law Billy Bob who has the fastest boat on the river. The Sheriff heads further along the river boasting about the prowess of Billy Bob’s vessel, blissfully unaware it has been stolen by Adam. When Pepper finally confronts Bond and CIA agent Felix Leiter (David Hedison) at a marina, the fuming Sheriff accuses 007 of being reckless — “What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy?” — and attempts to arrest him. After a quick word from Leiter, the supervising police officer informs Pepper that Bond is actually a British secret agent, much to the Sheriff’s annoyance.
Bond meets J.W. again on the hunt for assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). Holidaying in Bangkok, Pepper catches sight of Bond when he tours with his wife Marybelle (Jay Sidow). Later, browsing in a car showroom, Pepper finds himself in an AMC Hornet when Bond gets in and drives the car through a plate glass window. Joining the chase for Scaramanga, Pepper is an enthusiastic, encouraging passenger until the point Bond spiral jumps across a canal attempting to catch up with the cultured killer. After Scaramanga escapes, Pepper is arrested by the Thai police, protesting he is a policeman himself.
Focus Of The Week: Severine
A woman of mystery, Severine (Bérénice Marlohe) is the mistress of cyber criminal Silva (Javier Bardem) in Skyfall (2012). Powerful, dangerous and charismatic, she is a pivotal player in Bond’s mission to track down the nefarious mastermind but ultimately comes to a tragic end.
We encounter Severine as an accomplice to mercenary Patrice (Ola Rapace) in a Shanghai hotel room, she shows a stolen Modigliani painting ‘Woman With A Fan’ to Silva’s latest target. Yet this is a ruse to get the art dealer into the crosshairs of Patrice who assassinates the man, shooting him from an adjacent building. Severine watches Bond subsequently fight Patrice, the assassin falling from a window. She throws the secret agent an icy glance before rejoining her guards.
Bond and Severine first meet at Macau’s Floating Dragon Casino. Severine greets 007 on his arrival and the pair have a drink at the bar, discussing the topics of fear and death. Bond quizzes her on information about Silva, yet she warns him about digging too deep into the terrorist’s affairs. Bond notices that she has a Beretta 70 strapped to her thigh and observes her bodyguards are not so much protecting her as controlling her. Beneath her icy confident exterior, Bond senses she is frightened of her boss and deduces her current employer rescued her from an abusive past.
Hoping that Bond can rescue her from Silva’s clutches, Severine warns 007 about her guards’ intentions to assassinate him by throwing him into a pit with komodo dragons. She implores him, if he survives, to meet her on board Silva’s yacht Chimera. However, the pair are captured and taken to Silva’s base, an abandoned island known as the Dead City. Due to her disloyalty to Silva, Severine is separated from Bond and then beaten.
After meeting and being interrogated by Silva, Bond is taken to a courtyard where Severine is bound to a fallen statue. “There is nothing superfluous in my life,” Silva tells Bond. “When a thing is redundant it is eliminated.” Silva places a shot glass of 1962 Macallan Scotch on Severine’s head and forces Bond to engage in a shooting challenge with antique dueling pistols. Bond misses the target on purpose, convincing Silva he has lost his skill at marksmanship. Having no further need for her, Silva cold-bloodedly shoots Severine. As she slumps over, the glass falls to the floor, spilling the fifty-year old Scotch.
Focus Of The Week: Thunderball Underwater Battle
The underwater battle in Thunderball (1965) is a spectacular finale to the film. Bond (Sean Connery) uncovers SPECTRE’s Number Two Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi)’s plot to hold NATO to ransom with two stolen nuclear warheads. After 007 is captured by Largo, CIA Agent Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) orders the US Coast Guard to parachute in and engage Largo’s men beneath the hull of Largo’s boat the Disco Volante. What follows is a spectacularly choreographed battle that is as beautiful as it is thrilling.
Underwater filmmaking specialists Ivan Tors Films were hired to create 18 underwater sequences which contained 83 separate scenes. The unit were led by Ricou Browning, a filmmaker, cameraman and stunt performer best known for playing the Gill-Man in The Creature From The Black Lagoon.
“I asked (Thunderball Director) Terence Young, ‘Can you tell me what do you want?” recalled Browning about his preparation for the sequence. “He said, ‘Why don’t you shoot it and if you don’t do what I want, I’ll tell you about it.’ I never had another discussion with him about the show after that. He gave me a lot of freedom.”
Filming on the sequence began on May 10 1965 with close-ups of Sean Connery and Adolfo Celi. While the cast and crew of the first unit then returned to the UK, the Ivan Tors unit continued for another two weeks with over 45 divers.
“The underwater fight was the most difficult sequence, only in that there were so many people involved and we had dangerous weapons,” said Browning. “We didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and to coordinate each sequence we took some time to rehearse topside aboard the huge barge that we had rented, and then we would try and recreate underwater what we had rehearsed on the surface.”
The complexity of the sequence as well as the danger also slowed the production down. As Browning put it, “You can only retain so much in your mind before you need to talk again. And in those days we didn’t have underwater communication so we had to use hand signals. When it got so complicated that you couldn’t use hand signals, you just came topside and rehearsed it again, and went back again. It was time consuming.”
The sequence culminates in the Disco Volante running aground and exploding in a huge fireball. The experimental rocket fuel used to detonate the boat was far more powerful than Special Effects Supervisor John Stears predicted, blowing out windows 30 miles away in Nassau.
Stears won an Academy Award for his effects on Thunderball.
Focus Of The Week: Wai Lin
In command of a dizzying array of fighting skills, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) is arguably the most athletic, physically capable woman in the 007 series. Intelligent, independent with a sharp wit, she is a Colonel in the Chinese People’s External Security Force who reluctantly teams up with 007 (Pierce Brosnan) to stop a media manipulated war between Britain and China in Tomorrow Never Dies.
At the heart of the subterfuge is nefarious news baron Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). Wai Lin’s investigation into Carver begins when her organisation discovers stealth material has gone missing from one of the bases of General Chang (Philip Kwok), a prominent figure in the Chinese military. Suspecting Carver and Chang might be constructing a stealth plane, she infiltrates a luxurious launch party for Carver’s new satellite network CMGN at his Hamburg HQ by posing as a representative from the New China News agency.
Wai Lin attempts to break into Carver’s secret laboratory but discovers Bond has beaten her to it. As the guards close in, she utilises a snake bracelet that contains a piton and climbing wire to confidently walk down a metal column to make her escape, giving Bond a wave as she exits. She next encounters 007 diving in the sunken remains of the HMS Devonshire off the coast of Vietnam, discovering Carver has stolen a cruise missile from the ship. Captured by Carver’s enforcer Stamper (Götz Otto), Wai Lin and Bond are flown to Carver’s Saigon HQ. Only now do they discover the extent of Carver’s machinations to trick Britain and China into war.
Handcuffed together, Wai Lin and Bond enjoy a string of hairbreadth escapes — abseiling down a Carver banner, outrunning a helicopter on a motorbike — until Wai Lin shackles Bond to a pipe telling him she works alone. Yet when Bond comes to her aid as Chang’s men attack, he convinces the doubting Wai Lin they share a common purpose.
Wai Lin discovers Carver has not created a stealth plane but a stealth ship. The pair track down the vessel, slip on board and plant limpet mines. Stamper captures Wai Lin but Bond bargains for her freedom. He sets off a grenade that blows a hole in the hull, allowing Wai Lin to escape. In the melee that follows, Carver attempts to launch his stolen Tomahawk missile in Beijing. Stamper recaptures Wai Lin, threatening to kill her as a means to stop Bond disabling the missile.
After Wai Lin tosses Bond the detonators to cause the missile to self destruct, Stamper gets the upper hand by trying to drown her in the water. Bond revives her and the pair share a romantic moment amid the wreckage of Carver’s ship.
Focus Of The Week: Casino Royale Torture Scene
The Le Chiffre-Bond torture scene remains one of the most powerful scenes in Casino Royale (2006). After Bond wins the Poker tournament at Casino Royale, Le Chiffre faces financial ruin. He kidnaps Vesper Lynd and uses her as bait to capture, then torture 007. The plan goes perfectly but 007 refuses to give him the password to access the account holding the winnings. Before Le Chiffre can kill Bond, enigmatic terrorist Mr White murders Le Chiffre, leaving Bond alive.
On April 24, the first unit filmed scenes in the opulent lobby of the Grand Venetian Hotel, then moved to its polar opposite: a two-day shoot on an abandoned barge where Le Chiffre hands out the gruelling torture. Daniel Craig recalled Le Chiffre’s unique means of interrogation: “He strips me naked, puts me in a Bentwood chair that has no seat in it, then tortures me very hard with a piece of rope.”
The chair was fitted with a fibreglass screen to prevent any unwanted injuries to the leading man. The scene made it past the censors because the eye-wincing action is kept off-screen and its inclusion was vital in informing Bond’s character.
“It’s essential to the story because it sets up Bond’s vulnerability,” said Producer Michael G. Wilson. “Also Vesper is responsible for him falling into the trap, so her motivation to heal him and be with him comes from the guilt over complicity. Not having the torture scene would damage the story.”
Focus Of The Week: Elektra King
Fuelled by revenge, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) is equal parts intelligent, ambitious and bitter. Her triple-edged plot — to kill her father Sir Robert King (David Calder), to contaminate the Bosphorus Sea and to monopolise oil distribution from the Caspian sea — tests Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to the limit.
Before the action of the film unravels, Elektra is held hostage by international terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) in Cyprus, demanding $5 million for her release. Over the course of her captivity, Elektra realises her father Sir Robert King refuses to pay the ransom. Driven by paternal betrayal, Elektra persuades Renard to undertake a much more ambitious if darker plot. She makes it appear that part of her ear has been cut off and that she killed two captors to escape. MI6 agent 009 subsequently shoots Renard, the bullet lodging in his brain, slowly destroying his senses and condemning him to death. Elektra senses that the obsessed Renard has nothing to lose so will be willing to make any sacrifice for her.
At the beginning of the film, Elektra and Renard arrange a complex finance transfer that results in Sir Robert blowing himself up when he opens a case of money that they have laced with chemicals activated by King’s lapel pin that they switched for a look-a-like detonator. With her father gone, Elektra sets her sights on killing M for not persuading Sir Robert to pay the ransom and gaining complete control of Caspian Sea oil distribution.
Sir Robert’s death brings James Bond into Elektra’s orbit as M sends 007 to protect her. On his arrival, she tricks Bond into convincing M that Renard still poses a threat. Elektra also persuades M that a nuclear warhead stolen by Renard has been used to blow up her pipeline. At the same, she obtains a Russian nuclear submarine and crew that will be sacrificed in order to destroy Istanbul, which would leave her pipeline as the only channel for oil to reach the West. As a final act of devotion, Renard plans to plant part of the stolen warheads plutonium in the submarine’s reactor turning it into a nuclear bomb.
Elektra holds M and Bond hostage at the Maiden’s Tower on the Bosphorus. When Russian Caviar factory owner Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) arrives, she shoots him, although he is still able to fire one final shot allowing 007 to escape. Elektra confronts Bond on top of the tower. He trains his gun on her telling her he will spare her life if she calls off Renard’s attack. When she gives the final command to the terrorist over the radio, Bond shoots her in the heart.
Official Partner Of 007 Elements Announced
Jaguar Land Rover is the official partner of 007 Elements – a state-of-the-art installation in Sölden, Austria – it was announced today.
007 Elements, located at the top of the 3,050m Gaislachkogl peak, offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the world of the iconic secret agent in a new mountain-top location next to the ice Q restaurant used as the Hoffler Klinik in Spectre. Interactive displays featuring Jaguar Land Rover technical content along with the Land Rover Defender and Range Rover Sport SVR used for filming SPECTRE will form part of the experience.
Visitors will also see the latest Jaguar Land Rover technology, with the artificial intelligence systems and 90kWh lithium-ion battery from an electric Jaguar I-PACE performance SUV used to power a wireframe model of the C-X75 concept car that starred in a spectacular car chase through Rome in Spectre.
Jaguar Land Rover vehicles have appeared in nine Bond films since Octopussy in 1983, when Roger Moore made a dramatic escape in a Range Rover Classic driven by Bianca (Tina Hudson).
007 Elements will open to the public on 12 July 2018. For further information visit www.007elements.com
Focus Of The Week: Live And Let Die
With Sean Connery deciding not to return after Diamonds Are Forever, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman worked with United Artists President David Picker to look for a new 007. Jeremy Brett, Julian Glover and David Warbeck all auditioned yet ultimately the producers cast Roger Moore. The actor was Ian Fleming’s choice to play Bond in 1961 and, as Simon Templar in The Saint, played a character who shared many traits with Bond — debonair, adventurous, and unflappable.
For Moore’s first adventure, the filmmakers chose Live And Let Die, the second Fleming novel written in 1954. Tom Mankiewicz updated the novel’s plot about smuggling 17th Century gold coins to something more contemporary. Dr. Kananga, president of San Monique, under the guise of gangster Mr. Big, is flooding the USA with two tons of free heroin to put the competition out of business leaving him free to control the drug’s supply. Investigating the death of three British agents, Bond travels from New Orleans to San Monique where he foils Kananga’s plot and rescues voodoo priestess Solitaire.
A tour of the Caribbean embellished the script, the research uncovering voodoo ceremonies in Haiti and a large crocodile farm whose gate bore a sign ‘Trespassers will be eaten’. The farm’s owner Ross Kananga, impressed the production team and his facility was used not only as the location for a major action sequence but he agreed to double for Bond and run across the backs of three crocodiles — after the first take, the crocodiles started anticipating Kananga’s movements and one of them actually bit the heel of his shoe. The producers also liked his name and Mr Big’s alter ego became Kananga instead of Jakata.
To play Kananga, director Guy Hamilton picked rising star Yaphet Kotto (Across 110th Street). Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli chose Jane Seymour, a big star in BBC TVs The Onedin Line, as Solitaire. Choreographer Geoffrey Holder was cast as voodoo chief Baron Samedi, a role he originated in Truman Capote’s 1954 musical House Of Flowers — he also staged the distinctive San Monique dance sequences in the film. Holder suggested the film ending on the character riding on the front of Bond and Solitaire’s train, the man who cannot die.
Filming began on Friday October 13 1972 in the Irish bayou in Louisiana shooting the boat chase between 007 and Mr. Big’s henchmen, the most complex chase of its kind ever conceived. 26 boats were used in all — stunt driver Jerry Comeaux set a world record leaping a Glastron GT-150 150ft over a road — with 17 boats destroyed in the action. Filming moved in late 1972 to Jamaica utilising some of the same locations as Dr. No. Some scenes were also shot adjacent to Goldeneye, Ian Fleming’s residence where he penned the novel.
Regular Bond composer John Barry was unavailable to compose the score so Broccoli and Saltzman sought out Barry’s friend George Martin, the producer of The Beatles. Martin worked with Paul McCartney and Wings to create the memorable theme, which became the biggest Bond song to date reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard chart and No. 7 on the UK chart. It also received an Oscar nomination.
Live And Let Die was a huge success, outperforming the two previous Bond films overseas. But perhaps most significantly, it introduced Roger Moore as the natural successor to Sean Connery, a role he would make his own for the next 12 years.
Focus Of The Week: Skyfall Underground Chase
One of Skyfall’s (2012) standout stunt sequences is a chase through London’s underground system. After Silva (Javier Bardem) escapes from MI6’s new subterranean HQ, Bond pursues him through an underground station, running through ticket areas, corridors and platforms before leaping onto a speeding tube train as the criminal mastermind, disguised as a policeman, evades him.
Prior to the main unit shooting on the sequence’s climax on April 3 2012 on the 007 stage at Pinewood, both the main unit, directed by Sam Mendes and second unit, led by Alexander Witt, shot interiors at Charing Cross Station. Here the crew captured the moment where Silva slides down the escalators and Bond follows suit.
“We came up with this sliding rig that made it much easier for the actors and we could put the camera close to them,” recalled stunt coordinator Gary Powell. “Javier and Daniel went down on the rig, then Daniel did the slide by himself which was great because it gave us more options for the camera and gave us so much more energy to the scene.”
007 finally catches Silva at gun point in a service area just as the criminal detonates a hole in the roof. A tube train comes crashing through allowing Silva to escape. The stunning sequence was the brainchild of special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould.
“During pre-production, Sam rang me and said, ‘We’ve got the great chase in the underground of London but I feel we are short of one spectacular set piece,’” recalled Corbould. “That night I dreamt about a train crash. I mentioned it to Sam and it evolved from there. I didn’t realise how big it would become. It turned into a monster.”
Corbould and his team fitted an overhead track like a rollercoaster with two full-sized carriages hung underneath and linked to a powerful truck and cable system. This allowed the two 60 ft long carriages to get up to speed and then dip down into the set. With the vicinity cleared of crew personnel for safety reasons, ten remotely operated cameras covered the crash from practically every conceivable angle.
“We were concerned about stopping it,” recalled Corbould. “The carriages weighed something like 15 tons and we only had a small area to stop it in. I think it stopped about an inch before it hit the side of the water tank on the 007 Stage. It was one-off and it worked a treat.”
