Tags
007, Casino Royale, Czech Republic, Danube House, filming location, James Bond, James Bond location, movie location, Prague
At the beginning of ‘Casino Royale’ a car pulled up in front of the entrance to a modern office building in Prague, Czech Republic. It was Dryden (Malcolm Sinclair), the section chief of Mi6 in Prague, who got out of the car. He took an elevator to get to his office. He was surprised to see James Bond waiting there. Bond killed traitorous Dryden and became ’00’ agent with licence to kill. (Click here to watch that sequence)
That sequence was filmed at Danube House building located at Karolinska street in Prague.
The first scene was filmed with the camera set at the entrance to the building opposite to Danube House. In the shot you can see the roof above the entrance as in photo presented below.
In the photo below you can see Danube House on the right and the entrance to the opposite building where the camera was located on the left. The car arrived from pedestrian bridge above Rohanske Nabrezi street visible in the center of the photo.
Dryden got out of the car and looked around. He was filmed from so called worm’s-eye view with facade of Danube House visible in background.
In the next photo you can see elevators in Danube House – the same as in the film.
Through glass facade of Danube House from Rohanske Nabrezi street you can see the corridor where Dryden was walking down to his office.
Next photo was taken from pedestrian bridge above Rohanske Nabrezi street. On the right side you can see the entrance to Danube House where Dryden parked his car. On the left you can see the glass facade with the corridor and elevators behind it.
Cinematographer Phil Méheux, who shot ‘Casino Royale’ said: ‘If you want to do something quite different and turn everyone around, do something in black-and-white!’ Therefore the opening sequence was black-and-white. He also said that some cinematographers were shooting color that was later removed in the digital intermediate, but he didn’t like the look of that. For that reason he used about 6000 feet of black-and-white Eastman Double-X [5222] Kodak film.
Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘CASINO ROYALE’ to see locations photos compared with movie scenes.
Sources:
– „James Bond. Szpieg którego kochamy” Michał Grzesiek, Wydawnictwo Bukowy Las 2011
– www.theasc.com
In Barrandov Studio logo (photo above) you can see the studio main building (photo below) that is located at Krizeneckeho namesti.
Inside the building, in front of the reception desk, there are film posters, with “Casino Royale’ in the middle, hanging on the wall. It is worth mentioning that there were also other international films shot at Barrandov Studio such as ‘Mission: Impossible’, ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’, ‘The Bourne Identity’ etc.
Streets inside the Barrandov Studio are named after famous Czech film directors. Below you can see a photo of Otakar Vavra street sign. 
Next photos show the building where ‘Casino Royale’ was shot. It was built in 1940’s. There is a hudge Barrandov Studios logo on the roof of the building that can be seen i.e. on 
There is an entrance to the offices in the building at Otakar Vavra street.
On the other side of the building, at Frantisek Vlacil street, there are large entry gates to three stages.
‘Casino Royale’ was shot in Stage Number 6, where main decoration was built. Total area of the stage is 40 meters x 50 meters with construction area 36 meters x 46 meters and a height of 12 meters.
‘Casino Royale’ was also shot in Stage Number 7, where main decoration was built. Total area of the stage is 29 meters x 40 meters with construction area 25 meters x 36 meters and a height of 12 meters. Photo below shows film decorations in that stage.
It is worth to visit empty stage to see how big that is. Below you can see part of the Stage MAX that is the largest stage in Europe at 4,000 square metres at height of 13,75 meters. It was oficially opened on December 2006, a few months after ‘Casino Royale’ was shot.
I have also visited furniture warehouse looking for some props from ‘Casino Royale’. 
I would like to thank Jakub Zika and Lubomir Konecny from Barrandov Studio.
The Silverstone Circuit is located in England next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It was built on the site of the RAF Silverstone. There are still airfield’s runways within the outline of the track. It is the host of different racing series including Formula 1. There are headquarters of several Formula 1 teams not far from the circuit with Sahara Force India Formula One Team headquarters in the very Silverstone village.
In the chase scene Bob Simmons replaced Guy Doleman, who played Count Lippe. 
