On November 13th I was taking pictures of actors playing in “Bridge of Spies” at the international premiere in Berlin, Germany. One of them was Mikhail Gorevoy, Russian actor who was best known internationally for playing Vladimir Popov (Vlad), a villain working for Gustav Graves in ‘Die Another Day’.
In next pictures Mikhail Gorevoy (first from right) is standing next to Tom Hanks, Amy Ryan and Steven Spielberg.
Those films have more in common. At the beginning of “Die Another Day” James Bond was captured and imprisoned in North Korea. After 14 months he was traded for Zao in a prison exchange on a bridge. That was inspired by real event that took place on a bridge between Berlin and Potsdam in Germany. The same story was presented in “Bridge of Spies”.
It is also worth to notice that composer Thomas Newman scored “Bridge of Spies” as well as “Skyfall” and “Spectre”.
Information sources:
– Die Another Day Audio Commentary, Die Another Day Special Edition, Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation, 2006.
– http://www.filmweb.pl
For the first time Venice made a brief appearance in James Bond film at the end of ‘From Russia with Love’. James Bond (Sean Connery) and Tatiana Romanowa (Daniela Bianchi) kill Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in a hotel room with a view at San Giorgio Maggiore. In the next scene Bond and Romanova are in a boat under the Bridge of Sighs (photos below).
They turn right. 007 throws the film of him and Romanova into the water. A few seconds later there is only his waving hand visible with the Doge’s Palace in background. Piazzetta San Marco (picture below) leading to Piazza San Marco is a background for end credits.
All scenes in Venice were filmed using rear-projection technique. There was only film director Terence Young in Venice who filmed the city in one day only. Actors were filmed in Pinewood studio.
Venice will return in “Moonraker”.
Source: – „James Bond. Szpieg którego kochamy” Michał Grzesiek, Wydawnictwo Bukowy Las 2011
On October 30th 2012 I was in Berlin as accreditated photographer for German premiere of “Skyfall” that took place in Stage Theater am Potsdamer Platz.On the red carpet there were several actors known from other James Bond movies, such as Ludger Pistor who appeared in “Casino Royale” as the Swiss banker Mendel. Juergen Tarrach (in picture below together with his daughter) in “Casino Royale” was playing the role of Schultz, who was a hotel guest in the Ocean Club at Nassau. He asked James Bond to park his Range Rover, but 007 crashed the car to distract the security. Clemens Schick played Kraft, who was Le Chiffre’s right-hand henchman in “Casino Royale”. It was difficult to recognize him in the movie, because Kraft was bold and not smiling like Schick in a picture below. Veruschka von Lehndorff (first from right in the same picture) played Grafin von Wallenstein taking part in the poker match in the same film. About one hour before the film start Daniel Craig appeared on the red carpet together with the producer Barbara Broccoli, director Sam Mendes and actress Berenice Marlohe. Before standing in front of photographers Craig was signing autographs.Producer Barbara Broccoli was interviewed.Director Sam Mendes standing in front of photographers didn’t know yet that he would be back as director of next James Bond film “Spectre”. Most expected person of the evening was Daniel Craig.
He was also posing together with Bond girl Severine played by Berenice Marlohe.They were also posing all four together (from the left): Berenice Marlohe, Sam Mendes, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig.
On March 10th the car chase scene for “Spectre” film with Aston Martin DB10 and Jaguar C-X75 was shot at the Tiber river in Rome. Cars were riding on a road next to the river as seen in a picture below. The crew occupied for the film the street along the river between Umberto 1st bridge and Sisto bridge and there were crew trucks at Ponte Umberto 1st bridge. I was surprised checking that place in Google Street View. In September 2014 when pictures for google were taken, there were trucks of another film crew in the exactly same place!
Along the river there were film lamps prepared for night shooting. One of them is presented in a picture below with the Castle of the Holy Angel in background. In next picture the lamp is on.After sunset all city lamps and film lamps were on as seen in a picture taken from Ponte Sisto bridge.The crew has started preparations for shooting. There was motorboat and jet ski on Tiber river and tracking vehicle with cameras riding both ways. During the day at the Ponte Umberto 1st bridge there were only crew truck parked. In the evening several Aston Martins and Jaguars appeared on a street at the river.In the movie there was only one Jaguar chasing one Aston Martin, however on the set there were 3 Aston Martins DB10 and 5 Jaguars C-X75 from … 5 existing in the world (according to information i.e. from Wikipedia). 4 Jaguars were standing in one row next to each other, but the last one was parked a few meters from them with sheet of paper by wiper with „FLAME PROOFED DO NOT TOUCH NON TOCCARE” written on it. Two Aston Martins had paper sheets by wipers with „NO SMOKING” written on them. So we could expect flames on the set that night.All Jaguars on the set had the same license plates numbers: “ROMA860K”. I was a bit surprised when I have noticed that all of them had steering wheels on the left side.There was one Aston Martin and one Jaguar with remote drive POD system mounted on roofs. Using such system, stunt driver can drive a car sitting in metal cage on a roof of the car, while actor is sitting inside, pretending steering.
Besides Aston Martins and Jaguars there was another interesting car – tracking vehicle with several cameras on it.On the platform of the tracking vehicle there was clapperboard with the title of the movie “Spectre” written on it.
Car chase scene in Rome with Aston Martin DB10 and Jaguar C-X75 seems to be one of most exciting scenes in new James Bond film “Spectre”. Although such scenes in movies usually last no more than a few minutes, it takes a few days or weeks to shoot them. It was similar in this case. “Spectre” film crew was working on the scene for several nights in a row. In example on March 2nd 2015 they were filming on Via della Conciliazione (photo below) with St. Peter’s Basilica in background.
On March 8th I was lucky to see the car chase filming on Via Nomentana. All the cars were located at Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Transporti where the film crew built temporary fence (photos below).
There were only two cars – one Aston Martin DB10 and one Jaguar C-X75 in the scene, however there were more of them on the set.
About 10 p.m. everybody on a street could hear engines running – the sound was like on a pit lane on a race track. At first the car with cameras left the parking lot.
Some time later Jaguar C-X75 with license plate “ROMA 860K” appeared and drove away on Via della Conciliazione street. And finally the Jaguar DB10 left the parking lot and the filming began.
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