[Potential Spoilers] Official SKYFALL Photo Thread (Part I)

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

jet set willy wrote:

New photos taken today of Craig being filmed in his Range Rover -
http://www.filmnav.co.uk/2012/01/28/new-skyfall-photos-007s-range-rover/

Is the dude on the top of the Rover actually driving it?

And again, more reports (or regurgitated rumors) that the film has gone through budget cuts. Makes sense. We've gone almost three months and we've yet to get any sort of exotic, on-location reporting by the media other than what's been taking place in and around London. Three months into past film productions and you would have had Entertainment Tonight, Good Morning America, etc...having already filed one or two reports from Key West, The Rock Of Gibraltar, Tangier, The Bahamas. Instead, we're getting shots of Bond running around on foot in Canary Wharf. Not a good sign.

Yes, stunt driver on top controlling the car, so the camera rigged gets decent shots of Craig in the passenger seat, without a driver in the way. Bit of overkill to get a shot of an actor in a car if you ask me, but there you go.

As for location reports, yes there seems to be quite a lot set in London. Probably more than I can remember for any other Bond film in recent history.

Jack Wade wrote:

Where are these budget cut rumors?

Mainly from The Mirror.

I wrote a blog on it - http://www.filmnav.co.uk/2012/01/21/from-bognor-regis-with-love/

jet set willy wrote:

there seems to be quite a lot set in London. Probably more than I can remember for any other Bond film in recent history.

Some locations in the city are suspected to be doubling for other locations - for example, Deptford, which might be standing in for a town in Scotland.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

jet set willy wrote:

there seems to be quite a lot set in London. Probably more than I can remember for any other Bond film in recent history.

Some locations in the city are suspected to be doubling for other locations - for example, Deptford, which might be standing in for a town in Scotland.

Call me dull and unadventurous, but I quite like the idea of seeing a Bond film set heavily in London for once. It still needs a few exotic locations to balance this though.

jet set willy wrote:

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

jet set willy wrote:

there seems to be quite a lot set in London. Probably more than I can remember for any other Bond film in recent history.

Some locations in the city are suspected to be doubling for other locations - for example, Deptford, which might be standing in for a town in Scotland.

Call me dull and unadventurous, but I quite like the idea of seeing a Bond film set heavily in London for once. It still needs a few exotic locations to balance this though.

Likewise I am happy to see a concentration on the uk and 'a n other' location, the money spent on QoS did not make for a rich looking Bond Film, what happens is ultimately more important than where it happens imo.

Confirmation of location doubling in the UK:



The white car in the foreground is a mock-up of a Chinese taxi. The building itself is Exchange House in London. So, some of the other stuff that we have seen shot in London may appear as Shanghai.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Confirmation of location doubling in the UK:



The white car in the foreground is a mock-up of a Chinese taxi. The building itself is Exchange House in London. So, some of the other stuff that we have seen shot in London may appear as Shanghai.

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

What are you upset about this time?

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

What are you upset about this time?

The lack of authenticity in this picture. 3 months into filming Casino Royale Eva Green and Caterina Murino were sitting on the beach being photographed by the world's press for publicity photos. 3 months into filming SKYFOOL and all we've got are shots of a stunt driver on top of a Range Rover, and some location in England trying to pose itself off as Shanghai.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

some location in England trying to pose itself off as Shanghai.

Much of modern Shanghai has been designed by British architects so that's not so difficult to do.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

some location in England trying to pose itself off as Shanghai.

Much of modern Shanghai has been designed by British architects so that's not so difficult to do.

True enough, but remember when the producers said there were *no effects* on the budget because of the economy?

When asked the question they could have answered something like, "I'm not going to get into budgets. I read various estimates when we filmed Quantum of Solace. The test is whether we have a good story. We think we do and we think people who see the film will like it."

Instead, "Does it look like we're cutting back?" and a statement the budget was "in the range" of Quantum's. At that point, there was no way to tell, one way or another. For that matter, there's still no way to *know*. But, as Gravity pointed out, three months into filming of other recent Bond films, the first unit had done location work outside the U.K.

It could be for political rather than budgetary reasons. The Chinese may have sought control over aspects of the script that featured Shanghai.

MI4 was produced for $145m and shot in all of these locations - Dubai, Prague, Moscow, Mumbai, Bangalore and Vancouver.

Anyone heard a budget for Skyfall yet?

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

MI4 was produced for $145m and shot in all of these locations - Dubai, Prague, Moscow, Mumbai, Bangalore and Vancouver.

Anyone heard a budget for Skyfall yet?

Back in August, The Sunday Times (owned by News Corp. but not a tabloid), had the story that said one third of the budget would come from product placement. It placed that figure at $45 million. Multiply by three and you get $135 million. Here's the story as it ran in The Australian:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/more-than-a-word-from-007s-sponsors/story-e6frg6so-1226047962752

Some outlets attributed the story to The Australian but it simply ran the Sunday Times story. Anyway, the Sunday Times never explicitly uses the $135 million figure. But other oulets, such as The Times of India, stated the budget was $135 million without saying how they got the figure. Here's an example:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-27/ahmedabad/29935907_1_ahmedabad-railway-bond-23

Meanwhile, I remember Craig in one of his interviews referring to it as a $200 million picture but I don't have a link handy on that one. Evan at $200 million, that would be more than a 10 percent reduction from Quantum's reported $230 million budget.

Anyway, to answer the question, we don't have a firm estimated budget for Skyfall, at least not one I've seen published.

Napoleon Solo wrote:

True enough, but remember when the producers said there were *no effects* on the budget because of the economy?

True enough, but remember when Cubby Broccoli said: "The kids are very smart...and they know just where you are. They know you're in Hollywood behind a palm tree and not in Quarzazate and not in Morrocco."


That comment was at the 6:23 mark, by the way.

Notice that by November 5th, 1986, Joel Siegel of Good Morning America had already gone to Morrocco and interviewed everyone on the set of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. That's a mere 8 weeks into production.

12 weeks into SKYFALL we've yet to leave the U.K. for any exotic locations. No publicity photos of the Bond Girls released yet. Not a single glimpse of Bernice Merlot. Is she even really in this film or is M to be Bond's main squeeze in the film?

Notice a young(er) Barbara Broccoli behind the camera at the 2:26 mark. Dalton tells her "You have to press the red button to start." (my guess is that that was the moment Babs decided she didn't like taking orders or instructions from a man and decided to become a life-long militant feminist who vowed to "fundamentally transform" James Bond; poor guy. He never had a chance. The seeds of his destruction were probably sewn in her head at that very moment at the Forbes Estate in Tangier.)

Dalton doing publicity photos with Bond Girls in Tangier at the 3:25 mark.

I would highly suggest watching this clip for the new generation of Bond fans who may not remember a time when you could watch a five minute clip of a Bond movie being made without graphics scrolling along the bottom third of the screen, or the annoying interruptions of Mary Hart or Mark Steines drowning out what is being said by the people making the film. Those were the days when Bond films actually went to foreign locations. There was a sense of mystery and intrigue. Now most of these films are being made on studio back lots and in front of green screens.

To paraphrase Cubby Broccoli: 'Kids today are smart. They know you're in London behind a lorry, and not in Shanghai filming a car chase.'

In the case of The Living Daylights, I think they may have already filmed at Gilbratar *before* the news conference. At least that's how I remember the Inside The Living Daylights featurette on the DVD. Dalton went straight to Gilbratar on his first day and it was at least days later before they even had the press conference. And was that press converence in Vienna?

Also, re: my previous comment, I'm skeptical about the November press conference claim that the budget hadn't been affected at all. MGM was recently in bankruptcy court, Sony is having its own problems and the world economy isn't nearly what it was in late 2007/early 2008 when Quantum was being prepared and started shooting.

As I said before, the producers could have side stepped the issue and simply not answered the question about the budget. Instead, they doubled down and made it sound like there have been no effects whatsoever. You could cut the budget by $80 million from Quantum's reported budget and still have a bigger budget than most films.

Thanks for that, Gravy. For me TLD was the last great Bond movie. That clip confirms once more what a dismal mess the Babs years have been: miscast James Bond, fuck around with the character, and you're screwed, whatever else you may get right.

BTW, interesting to hear Dalton refer to himself as English rather than Welsh.

Maybe for some reason he felt English would translate to an American audience more than Welsh.

That or he feels more English, if that's possible.

Napoleon Solo wrote:

In the case of The Living Daylights, I think they may have already filmed at Gilbratar *before* the news conference. At least that's how I remember the Inside The Living Daylights featurette on the DVD. Dalton went straight to Gilbratar on his first day and it was at least days later before they even had the press conference. And was that press converence in Vienna?

Also, re: my previous comment, I'm skeptical about the November press conference claim that the budget hadn't been affected at all. MGM was recently in bankruptcy court, Sony is having its own problems and the world economy isn't nearly what it was in late 2007/early 2008 when Quantum was being prepared and started shooting.

As I said before, the producers could have side stepped the issue and simply not answered the question about the budget. Instead, they doubled down and made it sound like there have been no effects whatsoever. You could cut the budget by $80 million from Quantum's reported budget and still have a bigger budget than most films.

I believe you are correct that #1 first filming took place in Gibraltar #2 the press conference took place in Vienna. If I remember correctly, Dalton literally left Florida from shooting BRENDA STARR on a Friday and reported to Gibraltar on Monday. But look at all the location work the film committed to: Prater Amusement Park, The Rock Of Gibraltar, establishing shots of Bond and Kara in Czechoslovakia (doubled by Austria, but at least EON went to a place that could reasonably pass for The Czech Republic and not fake it on a sound stage), the Kasbah of Tangier, Forbes Estate in Tangier, Quarzazate (subbing for Afghanistan). Nearly two solid months of on location shooting by the time that report was filed with Good Morning America.

Do you think we'll get any similar shots of Bernice Merlot disembarking from a private boat in India? Of Bond jumping being shot at from a lighthouse in Key West?

Looks like Barbara has spent most of the money on getting A-list directors, cinematographers, actors and writers. Someone forgot to tell Babs that great Bond films don't require Oscar winning talent.

Quote :

Someone forgot to tell Babs that great Bond films don't require Oscar winning talent.

They don't need dozens of locations either, to be honest here. Just lots of (OO) and v.

It's her party and she'll buy what she wants to...

Erica Ambler wrote:

Thanks for that, Gravy. For me TLD was the last great Bond movie. That clip confirms once more what a dismal mess the Babs years have been: miscast James Bond, fuck around with the character, and you're screwed, whatever else you may get right.

You're welcome.

I never forgot that interview. I'm old enough to remember when Good Morning America had an all-week Bond marathon back in May of 1985, and every day was a different actor or musician or whatnot there to promote A VIEW TO A KILL.

I remember having to set the VCR to tape the interview Joel Siegel did, then having to sit through 8 or 9 hours of class and detention, wondering what the tape would show, before I got home later in the day and was able to watch it. The interview ran after I had to leave for high school (I was a freshman that year...again). Today I probably could have just DVR'd the thing and then had it sent to my I-phone or, better yet, just downloaded it directly off the Internet or used my IPhone to record Good Morning America.

I wonder if Cubby rolls over in his grave at the sight of what Barbara has done to this series:




P.S. Barbara, I want you to know that that image of Craig will be burned into my brain as I illegally download SKYFALL (or sneak into the theater for free). You will rue the day you used James Bond as a political prop, sweetheart.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

P.S. Barbara, I want you to know that that image of Craig will be burned into my brain as I illegally download SKYFALL (or sneak into the theater for free). You will rue the day you used James Bond as a political prop, sweetheart.

If Skyfall is a success and breaks Box Office records, she might do it again, only to put another bee in your bonnet :shock:

This time, Bond will be kneeling on the floor, arms behind his back and strapped by the wrists, anxiously awaiting his Mistress to replace his ball-gag with her sweaty, high-arched foot, relishing the thought of sucking the flavour out of her toes and knowing his place in a Corporate world that demands equal pay for women.

James Bond will return in 'spank my bottom'. Babs will be winging it for the gays too.

First of all...just because Babs says there are no budgetary constraint doesn't necessarily mean it's true. What do you expect her to say?

"Yes, the economy is bad and we're having problems getting the funds we need."

That's not exactly a great way to get people interested in your film. I'm not saying that there are or aren't budget issues, but saying something like "Does it look like we're cutting back?" is a pretty sly way of diverting attention to something else and turning it into a positive. It's a classic PR move.

I'm a little bummed about the lack of press so far about SKYFALL. They're two months into filming and so far almost nothing is known about this film outside of cast and crew personnel. I'd love to see some teaser photos of Marlohe in a bikini or Dan lighting up a cigarette or something (heaven forbid!). Minuscule Twitter pictures of nondescript locations doesn't exactly do anything for me.

With that said....the secrecy around the project is kind of refreshing, for a change. It's definitely getting me excited for the film. I definitely get the sense that Mendes really wants to keep things under wraps. Also, with the rumors of some "big twist" storyline within SKYFALL, maybe EON decided that after Goldeneye's marketing campaign (where they basically gave away the twist before the film was even released) they want to play it close to the chest to make things as "shocking" as possible.

...and I'm completely fine with "backyard" locations like London and Scotland being the primary backdrop. At least one unique, "wow!" location is needed, though.

I can exclusively reveal that the PTS opens with Bond and M sharing a post-coital bath.

Little do they know that M's childhood rubber duck has been SPECTRE'd...