Is James Bond heading to Oz?
THE producer behind the new James Bond movie Spectre says Australia is being eyed up as a possible location for the next film in the series.
SIBERIA, Azerbaijan, the Atacama Desert - 007 has travelled to dozens and dozens of exotic places. But he has never made it as far as Australia.
“That’s a terrible mistake,” said veteran producer Michael G. Wilson during a break in filming the fourth Daniel Craig film Spectrein Mexico City.
“Mea culpa. As soon as we can get a great sequence going we will get there.”
Directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall), and starring Christoph Waltz, Monica Bellucci, French actress Lea Seydoux and Mexico’s first Bond girl Stephanie Sigman, the latest Bond film opens with Mexico’s famous Day of the Dead festival.
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The film makers have shut down a large part of the historic downtown quarter for more than a week to film the spectacular chase sequence, which involves 1400 gorgeously ghoulish extras and a number of so far unexplained explosions.
For two days, a stunt helicopter has flown repeatedly past the windows of the Palacio National, so close it must have ruffled the Mexican President’s papers, to land in Zocalo square.
“It’s a big complicated sequence and we had to get a lot of co-operation - which we have done and we are thrilled,” said Wilson’s long-time producing partner Barbara Broccoli, daughter of franchise founder Albert.
“We are causing a lot of disruption here but they seem to enjoy it. It’s a beautiful festival and I think they really appreciate us putting it on film.”
Bond has a history of travelling to far-flung places, but the challenge now is to make those locations seem fresh to cinema audiences.
“People are travelling so much on their own the challenge is to find events or places that haven’t been widely exposed,” said Broccoli.
“With Spectre we have the sequence of the Day of the Dead, and obviously it happens in Mexico.
“For Australia, you would have to come up with Bond with a didgeridoo or on a kangaroo or on the Gold Coast.”