James Bond set visit to Adana (Danish article)

Translated from Danish with the help of Google and some common sense.

Quote :

On the set of 'Skyfall'

Tora Marie-Louise Eff, 13 April 2012 - 16:09

The roads around the bridge that goes over the railroad tracks in the Turkish city of Adana, has been blocked every day for two weeks now. The reason is the distinguished visitors from the team behind 'Skyfall'. On this sunny spring day some scenes from the opening of the film will be shot.

Bond girl Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean) hunts, along with Bond, the villain played by the Swedish Ola Rapace (Wallander).

Naomie plays MI6 agent Eve, who is stationed in Istanbul. As in her Range Rover and Bond on a motorcycle, chasing the villain Patrice, who runs off on a motocross-style motorcycle, she drives across the bridge to traffic. Eventually she frames a truck with barrels that overturns beyond the street.

This is the scene we have been allowed to attend. Adana is supposed to be the outskirts of Istanbul, although the distance between the two cities is similar to that between Copenhagen and Paris! All clear street signs were taken down, so there is nothing to reveal the illusion.

The team in Turkey do without Daniel Craig , currently filming in London. But Harris and Rapace are present to perform their stunts. Rapace spends most of the morning riding around on his motorcycle.

Both stunt coordinator Gary Powell and second unit director Alex Witt describes the Swede as very eager to do as many of his own stunts as possible. Yet while there is little restraint, the star must of course not get injured. So there's a stunt man running beside him, while Ola practices revving the gas to a "take" in which he must run directly towards the camera.



Ola Rapace to do stunts, and be a Scandinavian villain:

"The stunt team is good, in my opinion. I try to do as many of my own stunts as they'll let me. I enjoy every second of the wild stunts. I love, for example, to run really fast."

"My character, Patrice, is a man of few words. He is a French mercenary, and he loves violence."

"When I met Sam Mendes, the first thing he said to me that 'Together' was one of his favorite movies. Sam handpicked me for the role of Patrice."

"It's really liberating to play the villain. You can just let go and not worry about being nice and trying to please others, it's a nice change of pace. One should also not prepare as intensely psychologically and emotionally, which otherwise drains one's energy . So it's almost like being on vacation. "

"Scandinavian drama is generally quite good. Playing the villain is probably just a way for these good Scandinavian actors that get their name out into the big world. I do not think it's because we are particularly villainous that we end up in these villain roles."



Naomie Harris about having to train and be in a Bond film:

"Action part is probably the hardest for me. It's not something that comes naturally to me. It is far beyond my" comfort zone ". But I try to turn it into something fun."

"When I was told that I got the part I was completely beside myself. I understand it is not quite first, I thought the selection process would be much longer. But when I got the role, should I have to keep the news secret for two months. I told only my mother. "

"I had to prepare myself for a very physical role. I'm not a big fan of exercise. So I had to train myself to be both physically strong and learn to fire machine guns and practice stunt driving."

"There is much pressure on you when you have to do stunts. It is not the same as doing dialogue."

"I like the fact that Eve is such a strong, working woman. It makes more sense that a man like James Bond must face a strong, energetic and intelligent woman. So it is easier to create romantic relationships."

Ready to shoot

So we see the stunt with the truck that overturned and barrels that roll. Stunt coordinator Gary Powell reveals that it is the longest intro scene he has seen in a Bond film, and the film generally is one of the more action-heavy in the series. Although he a veteran stunt man and has a support bandage on the knee after "many years of wear." He was Pierce Brosnan's stunt double in 'GoldenEye' and has coordinated stunts for both 'Casino Royale' and 'Quantum of Solace'.

After two dress rehearsals, without the truck had to pass, the final scene is filmed, and action levels are much higher screwed up as soon as the total of six cameras rolling. An intense and chaotic driver banging into the poor lorry overturns dangerously close to one camera, but then slides several feet out of view.

"That kind of thing is really hard to predict. Truck slid much further than we had thought, so we must move the camera and take the stage on. But it's the sort thing that happens. We have a total of three identical trucks, so we can in fact take the stage on three occasions, "said unit director Alexander Witt.

To the question whether it perhaps becomes necessary to use all of their spare trucks, he replies:

"No it's not guarantied. For the filming of 'Casino Royale', we had three cars to one of Daniel's stunts, and we ended up only using the two."

There are four extra hours to be spent to carry out yet another "take". So the planned filming of Ola, who jumps from the bridge and onto a train, is to be delayed until the next day.

Skyfall will premiere on 25 October.

http://www.kino.dk/nyheder/2012/04/james-bond-set-besoeg-i-adana

I barely skimmed the article in order to avoid spoilers, but I do like this news. It appears Bond is going off the beaten track a bit. IMO, the best Bond locales are those that combine glamour with a touch of obscurity. Adana qualifies.

If Adana is doubling for the outskirts of Istanbul, then it's safe to say that Istanbul itself will feature in the mid-section of the film too rather than just in the PTS.

Gogol, the article describes a scene that we've never heard of before. It's possible that Adana will appear as itself and double for the outskirts of Istanbul.

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Stunt coordinator Gary Powell reveals that it is the longest intro scene he has seen in a Bond film

I sure as hell hope not. TWINE has the longest PTS at 20 minutes, and that's way too long. Unless, that is, if Mendes plans on getting creative and maybe doing something like playing the title sequence as the PTS is going on.

Anyway...the PTS sounds like it could be pretty good. The train derailment could be really spectacular if done correctly. The motorbike stuff sounds a little too Bourne-ish for me, plus Craig already rode a motorbike in QoS, anyway.

So, judging from the info we've gathered from the various interviews over the months, it would seem like the PTS will play-out something like this...

-The film begins in Istanbul. Bond is in bed with the Greek babe.

-He is forced to leave. Perhaps he gets a call from Eve notifying him of Ola.

-Bond and Eve chase Ola through Istanbul, with Bond and Ola on motorbikes and Eve in a car.

-Near the outskirts of Istanbul, there is some kind of crash involving a truck, and presumably Eve. She is forced to give-up her pursuit as Ola hops on board a train. Bond follows.

-Bond and Ola fight on top of the train as it crosses a bridge.

-Somehow, the train is derailed and flies off the bridge, killing Ola. Bond is presumed dead. Cue title sequence.

dr. strangelove wrote:

I sure as hell hope not. TWINE has the longest PTS at 20 minutes, and that's way too long.

The problem with TWINE's sequence is that it's broken up. The original script called for the PTS to end when Bond left the banker's office in Spain, and the film resumed with Bond in London. But it was felt that this was too short and too low-key, so the sequence was extended to include the Thames boat chase. That decision was probably made during editing, so when Powell filmed the stunts for the Bilbao scenes, he was probably under the impression that the PTS would end after Bond jumped out the window.

A long pre-title sequence isn't automatically a bad thing. LTK has a long scene, but since it's all fairly self-contained, it's not really as noticeable as TWINE's. So, too, does GE. They're long, but because they're almost a mini-film themselves, they're fairly enjoyable. If SKYFALL's opening is written in a similar fashion, it could easily be very good.

dr. strangelove wrote:

So, judging from the info we've gathered from the various interviews over the months, it would seem like the PTS will play-out something like this...

-The film begins in Istanbul. Bond is in bed with the Greek babe.

-He is forced to leave. Perhaps he gets a call from Eve notifying him of Ola.

-Bond and Eve chase Ola through Istanbul, with Bond and Ola on motorbikes and Eve in a car.

-Near the outskirts of Istanbul, there is some kind of crash involving a truck, and presumably Eve. She is forced to give-up her pursuit as Ola hops on board a train. Bond follows.

-Bond and Ola fight on top of the train as it crosses a bridge.

-Somehow, the train is derailed and flies off the bridge, killing Ola. Bond is presumed dead. Cue title sequence.

Possibly, but it is believed that Ola Rapace re-appears in the film in the Shanghai scenes preparing to assassinate somebody. So he probably doesn't die in the train wreck, assuming the train is wrecked and he is on-board. It's possible that the scene may simply involve Bond and Eve chasing Patrice across the city, and the train sequence featured later.

Also, that Greek model claims the ilm starts with Bond being smuggled into Istanbul, his death having been staged. I doubt the film will start with him in bed with her.

dr. strangelove wrote:

I sure as hell hope not. TWINE has the longest PTS at 20 minutes, and that's way too long.

20?? I thought it was closer to 14 minutes, unless you meant the extended cut.

With this being the 50th anniversary, and coming on the heels of a 4 year hiatus, I think they want to open Skyfall with something extraordinary....

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

With this being the 50th anniversary, and coming on the heels of a 4 year hiatus, I think they want to open Skyfall with something extraordinary....

The only problem with that is that it's very easy to hit the high note of the film way too soon.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Possibly, but it is believed that Ola Rapace re-appears in the film in the Shanghai scenes preparing to assassinate somebody. So he probably doesn't die in the train wreck...

Ah yes, you're right. I forgot that it's supposedly him with the sniper rifle in the Shangai scene.

Quote :

...assuming the train is wrecked and he is on-board.

Hasn't it been confirmed the the train derails and goes off the bridge in the PTS...and that it's a scene that was in the original GOLDENEYE draft? We know that they filmed sequences of Bond and someone fighting on top of the train with the big hole in it, too. I mean, wasn't that precisely the reason why they dropped the filming in India, because the specific Indian rail company didn't want to show their train falling off a bridge?

Quote :

It's possible that the scene may simply involve Bond and Eve chasing Patrice across the city, and the train sequence featured later.

One of the articles (can't remember which one) states that Patrice makes his way to a train after the motorbikes, so I just assumed it was a continuation of that chase.

dr. strangelove wrote:

Ah yes, you're right. I forgot that it's supposedly him with the sniper rifle in the Shangai scene.

Well, we think it's him. The profile appears to be right, but there is no clear shot of his face.

dr. strangelove wrote:

Hasn't it been confirmed the the train derails and goes off the bridge in the PTS...

Nope. Because the bike-bridge-train stunt is a big one, a lot of people assumed it would be part of the PTS. But nothing has been confirmed.

dr. strangelove wrote:

and that it's a scene that was in the original GOLDENEYE draft? We know that they filmed sequences of Bond and someone fighting on top of the train with the big hole in it, too.

Defiantely not. In the original GOLDENEYE draft, Bond fights a sommelier on the roof of the train. But other than that, there is virtually nothing to suggest that the scene in SKYFALL is taken directly from the GOLDENEYE draft, since the draft had Bond driving his Aston Martin along the tracks in front of a magnetically-levitated train travelling 300km/h or some such (it's actually a very confusing script).

dr. strangelove wrote:

I mean, wasn't that precisely the reason why they dropped the filming in India, because the specific Indian rail company didn't want to show their train falling off a bridge?

We don't really know who pulled the pin first - EON or the Indians. Personally, I think EON got fed up with the Indians wanting production to make changes to the scene, so as to better-portray India. The original draft of the scene featured people riding on top of two trains, but the Indian government objected because this is illegal in India. They claim nobody does it, but a quick search of YouTube showed dozens of videos for it. They also wanted Daniel Craig to become a spokesperson for Indian Railways as a condition of filming, and there were probably a whole host of other demands. In the end, I think EON simply lost patience with them and the way they were trying to dilute the scene to be one big advertisement for India.

dr. strangelove wrote:

One of the articles (can't remember which one) states that Patrice makes his way to a train after the motorbikes, so I just assumed it was a continuation of that chase.

I did see that, but the article appears to have been written off a translated version of the Danish article Sharky posted the other day, and I think something might have been lost in translation, because I don't think that Danish article mentions it. And we also know that it is Bond who jumps the bike off the bridge onto the train, not Patrice.

Looks like the motorcycle chase in Adana will go over rooftops:

http://www.habermonitor.com/en/haber/detay/james-bond-the-first-pictures-from-the-set/152840/