Medieval Italy, MI6 HQ brought to life for 'Bond'
Jill Lawless / Associated Press
It takes a lot of planks and plaster to bring James Bond's adventures to life. The latest 007 movie, "Quantum of Solace," is being shot amid high security at a sprawling studio complex near London, where vast sound stages have been transformed into a medieval Italian town, a corner of South America and the high-tech headquarters of British intelligence.
Reporters given a backstage tour this week saw star Daniel Craig's stunt double, Ben Cooke, preparing to wreak havoc on an art gallery in Siena, Italy. Nearby, Bond's boss M, played by Judi Dench, sat talking to an assistant in her high-tech office at MI6 headquarters.
It's a surreal experience to wander around Pinewood Studios, a 100-acre collection of brick buildings, backlots and cavernous hangars set amid woods and fields a few miles northwest of London. Bond thrillers have been shot here since the series began with "Dr. No" in 1962.
The sheer scale of the enterprise is startling. Filming, which began Jan. 3, is taking place on five sound stages, including the vast "007" stage, rebuilt after it was gutted by fire in 2006. Scores of workers scurry about. About 500 cast and crew are working on the film -- 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. "We have a crew that's all worked together, all know each other," says producer Michael G. Wilson.
The black-and-white "marble" pillars of the Siena art gallery are hollow, but look like the real Tuscan thing. The MI6 set -- newly built for this film -- is a sleek two-story suite of steel-gray furniture and frosted glass offices that puts many corporate headquarters to shame. Sets have always been crucial to the success of the Bond Films. The series' most famous designer, Ken Adam, created unforgettable, futuristic sets for seven Bond movies, including the vaults of Fort Knox in "Goldfinger" and the villainous Blofeld's volcano lair in "You Only Live Twice." It was Adam who designed Bond's iconic car, a gadget-filled Aston Martin.
The production designer for "Quantum of Solace" is Oscar nominee Dennis Gassner ("The Golden Compass").
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